Best Blue Chip Dividend Stocks to Buy for 2025 and Beyond
Wall Street's top-rated blue chip dividend stocks are well-positioned to generate income and deliver outperformance.


It's said the best blue chip dividend stocks never go out of style. True, they might tend to lag in up markets, but they're also likely to hold up better when everything is selling off.
That defensive bias might just be what investors need amid an increasingly opaque outlook for equities.
After lagging the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite by about 16 percentage points on a total return basis in risk-on trading last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is holding up better than its growthier benchmark in 2025.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
The elite bastion of 30 blue chip stocks was essentially flat for the year to date through late May, while the Nasdaq was still off by 2%.
Moreover, the Dow suffered a maximum drawdown of 12% when the market threw up in April. By comparison, the Nasdaq lost more than 20% at its spring nadir.
Although the very bluest of blue chip dividend stocks were collective laggards in 2024, their defensive aspects could come in handy over the next 12 months or so. After all, trade uncertainty has complicated the Federal Reserve's rate-cutting plans.
The economic outlook has deteriorated as well. Economists' median estimate puts the odds of recession over the next year at 40%. Separately, the New York Federal Reserve's yield-curve model assigns a 30% probability of recession over the next 12 months, up from 23% at the start of 2025.
Happily, Wall Street's top-rated blue chip dividend stocks – with their impregnable balance sheets and rivers of free cash flow – are well-positioned to generate income and deliver outperformance in the year ahead and beyond, analysts say.
How to find the best blue chip dividend stocks
In order to find the best blue chip dividend stocks to buy now, we started by screening all 30 Dow Jones stocks for Wall Street analysts' top-rated names.
Here's how the process works: S&P Global Market Intelligence surveys analysts' stock ratings and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals Strong Buy and 5.0 means Strong Sell.
Any score of 2.5 or lower means that analysts, on average, rate the stock a Buy. The closer the score gets to 1.0, the stronger the Buy call. In other words, lower scores are better than higher scores.
The dividend yield on the Dow has fallen below 2%, so we further limited our screen to Dow dividend stocks with yields of more than 2% as of May 27.
And so, without further ado, below please find the sevene Dow dividend stocks yielding more than 2% that analysts like best. Note well that the top-rated stock is one of the biggest positions in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.
Company (Ticker) | Dividend Yield (%) | Analysts' Consensus Recommendation Score | Analysts' Consensus Recommendation |
Coca-Cola (KO) | 2.8 | 1.65 | Buy |
Home Depot (HD) | 2.5 | 1.82 | Buy |
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) | 2.8 | 1.85 | Buy |
Merck (MRK) | 4.2 | 1.96 | Buy |
Procter & Gamble (PG) | 2.6 | 2.00 | Buy |
Cisco Systems (CSCO) | 2.6 | 2.08 | Buy |
Chevron (CVX) | 5.0 | 2.13 | Buy |
Related Content
Get Kiplinger Today newsletter — free
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the publication full time in 2016.
A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.
In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.
Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.
Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.
-
Energy-Efficiency Credits — Get ’Em While You Can
Green energy-efficiency credits are on the chopping block. These tax credits can be valuable, but you should upgrade your home sooner rather than later.
-
Retire in Japan: It Ain’t Easy, Unless You’re Very Special
People find relocating to Japan worth the effort, as long as you can jump through those administrative hoops and be open to a flexible view of “retirement.”
-
5 Father's Day Gift Ideas That Also Make Good Long-Term Investments
Ties are tired. Try these growth-potential gifts instead.
-
My First $1 Million: Retirement Coach, 69, Sammamish, Wash.
Ever wonder how someone who's made a million dollars or more did it? Kiplinger's My First $1 Million series uncovers the answers.
-
Four Innovations That Reinvented Retirement as We Know It and Why AI Is Next
A financial professional explores the innovations that have reshaped our lives over the years — and what the next revolution, AI, could mean for your legacy.
-
AI vs the Stock Market: How Did Tech Stocks, Palantir and Albemarle Perform in May?
AI is a new tool to help investors analyze data, but can it beat the stock market? Here's how a chatbot's stock picks fared in May.
-
What Will They Remember About You? It's Not Just About Your Money
Once you retire is the prime time to ensure you leave a meaningful legacy, personally and financially. This financial planner suggests five steps to build a bridge between who you are and how you'll be remembered.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Bounce as US-China Tensions Escalate
Stocks were volatile to end the week and the month amid concerns a trade truce between the U.S. and China is splintering.
-
The United and JetBlue Partnership: Everything We Know About Blue Sky So Far
Blue Sky, the United and JetBlue partnership just announced, will give frequent fliers more ways to earn and use miles. Here's what you need to know.
-
How One Widow Nearly Missed Out on $213,000 in Social Security
Losing your partner often means losing 30% to 50% of your household income. This financial adviser emphasizes that planning ahead and understanding the rules surrounding survivor benefits can help.