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High-End Tool Stock Set to Gain from Domestic Manufacturing Bump

Payouts climbed. Share prices didn't get the memo. Guess which names bucked the trend.

Today, we will walk through three dividend hikes that hit the market this week, flag the Wednesday earnings slate every income investor should have circled, and share the names about to pay a dividend in the next few days.

Three raises. Two of the stocks got hammered anyway. That disconnect between boardrooms and trading floors tells you exactly where sentiment sits heading into a heavy earnings week.

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Healthcare

AbbVie Is Turning One Medicine Into a Much Broader Franchise

AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) has secured European Commission approval for RINVOQ as the first and only systemic treatment in the European Union for adults and adolescents with non-segmental vitiligo. The approval gives the company access to a new patient group across Europe and adds another major use to one of its most important medicines.

The move matters because AbbVie is not relying on RINVOQ for one disease area. The company is steadily expanding the medicine across multiple immune-related conditions, creating a broader and more durable growth platform.

Europe Adds Another Growth Market

Vitiligo is a long-term condition with limited treatment options, and AbbVie now has the only approved systemic medicine for eligible patients across the European Union. That gives the company a strong first position in a market where awareness and treatment demand have room to grow.

Look at the approval list, and you can see the scale of the strategy. AbbVie is building RINVOQ into a medicine that serves several large patient groups instead of depending on one narrow market.

Skin Health Gets More Important

RINVOQ is already approved in Europe for conditions including eczema, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and severe hair loss. Adding vitiligo strengthens AbbVie’s position across dermatology and immune-related care.

Put your focus on the wider franchise. With the U.S. application still under review, you have AbbVie building the next stage of RINVOQ one market at a time. The European approval strengthens the company’s long-term immunology strategy and gives it another clear route to growth.

ABBV currently trades at $257 and pays a dividend of $6.92 per share, a yield of 2.68%.

Retail

Walmart Is Building One of America’s Fastest-Growing EV Charging Networks

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is rapidly building its own high-speed electric vehicle charging network across the United States, moving ahead of several established operators and major retail competitors. The company opened about 46 public charging stations with 380 charging connections, while hundreds of additional locations are reportedly under construction.

The move uses one of Walmart’s strongest company assets: more than 4,600 U.S. stores positioned near highways, suburbs, small towns, and everyday shopping routes. Instead of depending only on outside charging providers, Walmart is bringing more of the network under its own brand and control.

Parking Lots Become Customer Hubs

EV drivers often remain near a charging station while their vehicles recharge. Walmart can turn that waiting time into store visits, grocery purchases, pharmacy trips, and other spending.

Pull into a Walmart charger, and you are already steps away from the company’s wider retail business. The charging stop becomes another path into the store rather than a separate service sitting outside it.

Location Becomes the Advantage

Walmart already controls thousands of well-known locations with large parking lots and existing retail demand. Put your focus on that footprint. Walmart can expand charging where customers already shop instead of building an entirely new destination from scratch.

Electric vehicle sales may be growing unevenly, but Walmart is building ahead of broader adoption. Owning more of the charging experience gives the company control over pricing, placement, reliability, and future customer services.

WMT currently trades at $110 and pays a dividend of $0.99 per share, a yield of 0.89%.

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Energy

New Pipeline Projects Put TC Energy Behind America’s Power-Demand Boom

TC Energy (NYSE: TRP)  has approved about C$700 million in new natural gas pipeline projects across the United States and Canada, expanding one of North America’s most important energy networks as electricity demand rises.

The new projects include major additions in Virginia and along the company’s Columbia Gulf system, along with another expansion in Western Canada. Two of the U.S. developments are designed to support growing demand from power generation.

Electricity Demand Opens a New Lane

Power use is rising as data centers, manufacturers, businesses, and growing communities place heavier demands on the grid. TC Energy is positioning its pipeline network to supply the gas needed by power plants serving that expansion.

Follow the power demand upstream, and you arrive at TC Energy’s larger opportunity. The company already owns critical routes, and every expansion makes that network more valuable to utilities seeking reliable long-term supply.

Long-Term Growth Gets Locked In

The projects are expected to begin entering service in 2028 and beyond, giving TC Energy a clearer pipeline of future expansion. The company is building ahead of demand rather than waiting for power shortages to force a response.

As North America requires more dependable electricity, TC Energy is strengthening its place between natural gas producers and the utilities powering homes, factories, and large commercial facilities. The C$700 million approval turns rising electricity use into a concrete long-term growth plan.

TRP currently trades at $67 and pays a dividend of $2.48 per share, a yield of 3.66%.

Dividend Stocks Worth Watching

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) reports Wednesday. It's the base-plus-variable dividend structure that makes this one worth your attention. Strong quarters translate directly into cash back to shareholders, so management's tone on capital returns matters as much as the headline number. Crude has been choppy. If the commentary leans confident, the variable payment could surprise to the upside. If it leans cautious, expect the stock to sell off but the base payout to hold. Either way, this is the report that resets the income math for anyone holding energy dividends into year-end.

Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) is your classic New York utility, boring by design, with more than 50 straight years of dividend increases behind it. The setup Wednesday is straightforward. Utility valuations have compressed as long rates have crept higher, so any hint of easing pressure on the funding side could snap ED higher out of the print. If you're building an income portfolio that has to actually pay bills every month, this is the kind of core holding you add on weakness, not chase on strength.

Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ: KDP) rounds out the trio, also reporting Wednesday. KDP is a rare consumer name that combines dividend growth with double-digit earnings expansion, and the coffee-plus-cold-drinks mix keeps volume steadier than pure snack peers. If guidance holds up against what Kenvue just delivered, KDP could stand out as the clean staples play into the back half of the year. Do your position sizing before Wednesday, not after. Post-earnings gaps are where dividend investors most often overpay.

Dividend Increases

Union Pacific (UNP) lifted its quarterly dividend 3% to $1.42 per share. 

Boise Cascade (BCC) nudged its quarterly payout 5% higher to $0.23 per share. 

Crawford & Company (CRD.B) bumped its quarterly dividend from $0.075 to $0.08, a 6.7% raise on both share classes.

J.M. Smucker (SJM) delivered its 25th consecutive annual hike, taking the quarterly dividend to $1.12 from $1.10, a 2% raise.

Dividend Decreases

Vitesse Energy (VTS) trimmed its quarterly dividend 22.2% to $0.4375 per share from $0.5625. Management pointed to crude price pressure.

Shutterstock (SSTK) suspended its quarterly cash dividend outright at its July 20 board meeting, citing a capital-allocation review and debt reduction.

Policy Impact (Sponsored)

The U.S. government pumped more than $1 billion into Intel.

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Upcoming Dividend Payers

Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) goes ex-dividend August 3 for its $0.68 payout, payable August 14. Its yield remains one of the fattest in the healthcare REIT space.

ONEOK (OKE) goes ex-dividend August 3 for a $1.07 quarterly payment. Midstream cash flow keeps grinding.

Blackstone (BX) also goes ex-dividend August 3 with a $1.29 payout. The variable component makes this one worth checking every quarter, not holding blind.

Everything Else

  • 📈 Apple and Amazon shares moved in opposite directions after earnings, showing investors are rewarding execution while punishing Big Tech spending.

  • 🛢️ Oil prices remained volatile as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz kept traders focused on supply disruption.

  • 🔎 Reddit’s CEO argued Google’s AI Overviews cannot replace traditional search results, defending the value of the open web.

  • 🚗 Toyota will fix software in nearly 40,000 China-built EVs after safety hazards were identified, adding pressure to its electric-vehicle strategy.

  • ☁️ Microsoft posted a record one-day market-cap gain after an upbeat Azure forecast reinforced confidence in the company’s AI growth engine.

That’s all for today’s edition of the Dividend Brief.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any feedback or dividend stocks you want me to take a look at, just reply to this email!

—Noah Zelvis
DividendBrief.com