Q2 dividend season is doing something interesting. Off-price retail is printing record cash, freight is finally raising payouts after two ugly years, and global miners are pushing dividends to four-year highs on copper strength.
Three stories worth your attention this week, plus a watchlist of three yielders the broader market keeps overlooking.
AI Warning Issued (Sponsored)
AI insider Keith Kaplan says the next phase of the AI boom could punish investors who are still crowded into the biggest names.
After spending more than $17 million on AI research, he says there’s one move investors should consider before August 31 — and it doesn’t involve Nvidia, SpaceX, or Microsoft.
Reveal the AI Move Keith Says to Make Before August 31.
Manufacturing
Another $10 Billion Commitment Deepens Micron’s American Footprint
Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) is committing $10 billion over the next decade to establish Micron Research Labs in Boise, Idaho, creating a major new research center alongside the company’s rapidly expanding U.S. manufacturing footprint.
The investment will bring together Micron teams, universities, customers, government partners, and other researchers in one organization. For the company, the bigger move is to connect future product development more closely with the factories and supply chain it is already building across the United States.
Research Meets a Massive Factory Buildout
Micron has already committed more than $250 billion to U.S. manufacturing and research through 2035. The new $10 billion program strengthens the front end of that plan by investing in what the company will need to produce years from now.
If America’s manufacturing comeback is on your radar, Micron is becoming one of its largest corporate participants. The company is pairing factory capacity with the research infrastructure needed to keep those facilities relevant over the long term.
The U.S. Strategy Gets Harder to Copy
Large manufacturing projects can be replicated with enough capital, but building research relationships, specialist talent, suppliers, and production knowledge around them takes much longer. Micron is trying to create all of those pieces together.
As that network grows, you can see Micron building more than additional chip capacity. The $10 billion commitment strengthens a U.S. business ecosystem designed to give the company greater control over innovation, production, talent, and its next decade of growth.
MU currently trades at $958 and pays a dividend of $0.60 per share, a yield of 0.06%.
Infastructure
A Construction Boom Is Starting to Change the Shape of Deere
Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) construction and forestry business is emerging as the company’s fastest-growing major segment, with sales rising 18% as infrastructure projects and data-center construction drive stronger equipment demand.
The shift arrives while demand for large agricultural machinery remains under pressure. For Deere, that makes construction far more important than a temporary bright spot. It is becoming a second engine that can carry more of the company when farming moves through a weaker cycle.
Backlogs Stretch Into 2027
Customer orders in construction are already extending well into fiscal 2027, giving Deere stronger visibility into future production and demand.
For anyone tracking Deere mainly through agriculture, that backlog changes the picture. Infrastructure and data-center projects are giving the company another large customer base with spending cycles that do not move exactly like farming.
A More Balanced Deere Takes Shape
A stronger construction operation can help Deere absorb downturns in agriculture without depending entirely on a recovery in crop equipment demand. It also gives the company another place to direct manufacturing capacity, technology, and dealer resources.
By the time you look at where Deere’s next phase of growth is coming from, construction deserves a much bigger place in the conversation. The company is building a more balanced business, with infrastructure demand helping reduce how much its fortunes depend on the farm cycle alone.
DE currently trades at $632 and pays a dividend of $6.48 per share, a yield of 1.03%.
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Retail
Alibaba Is Putting Tens of Billions Behind a More Focused Future
Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) has already deployed roughly half of the $56.4 billion investment program it plans to complete through 2029, showing how quickly one of the company’s biggest strategic spending cycles is moving from promise into execution.
Alibaba is reorganizing around four major businesses and directing more capital toward the areas it believes can carry future growth. The company is effectively using the scale of its existing commerce operations to finance a much broader reinvention.
The Spending Is Becoming Real
A multiyear investment plan only changes a company once the money begins moving. Alibaba is already well into that process, putting billions behind infrastructure, services, and businesses it expects to become increasingly important.
Once you move beyond the headline number, the bigger change becomes clearer. Alibaba is choosing to sacrifice some near-term profitability to build businesses designed to matter much more several years from now.
Commerce Funds the Next Alibaba
Alibaba’s enormous e-commerce operation remains the foundation underneath the transformation. Its scale gives the company resources few competitors can match to fund new infrastructure and expand into adjacent markets.
Several years from now, you may look back at this investment cycle as the period when Alibaba stopped being defined mainly by online shopping. The company is using one of Asia’s largest commerce businesses to finance a broader organization built around several major growth platforms rather than a single dominant engine.
BABA currently trades at $128 and pays a dividend of $1.05 per share, a yield of 0.82%.
Dividend Stocks Worth Watching
Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN)
A biotech that behaves like a utility for your income sleeve. Amgen pays $9.80 a year against Friday's $439.33 close, a starting yield of roughly 2.2%, and management has raised the payout every year since it started one in 2011. That is rare in large-cap biotech, where cash usually disappears into pipeline bets.
The obesity and inflammation franchises are doing the heavy lifting now, and the balance sheet still throws off enough free cash flow to cover both the dividend and the debt paydown from the Horizon deal. You are getting drug-pipeline optionality with a check that arrives whether the pipeline cooperates or not.
If you want dividend growth without tech-cycle volatility, this is a clean way to own it. Buy on pipeline scares rather than strength. Next catalyst is the Q3 report in late October, where the payout coverage gets its next update.
Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET)
Pipeline MLP yielding 6.42% with distribution coverage well over 1.7x. That's the kind of margin of safety you used to pay a premium for.
Natural gas demand from data centers is starting to hit real numbers. ET operates one of the largest integrated midstream networks in the US, with direct exposure to Permian gas, LNG export corridors, and NGL flows. The units have lagged the broader energy complex, which means you're getting the yield at an attractive entry.
If you can stomach a K-1 at tax time, ET is one of the highest-quality high-yielders on the board. The next catalyst is the Q3 distribution announcement in October, where I expect another modest raise.
Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY)
The largest private timberland owner in the country, structured as a REIT, trading at $24.43 into Friday's close with an $0.84 annual base payout for a yield near 3.4%. That is real income while you wait on housing.
Timber pricing has been soft through this rate cycle because single-family starts stalled. That is exactly the setup you want in a land business: the trees keep growing whether or not anyone builds this quarter, and Weyerhaeuser can hold inventory on the stump until lumber prices recover. When mortgage rates finally roll over, the demand snapback hits pricing before it hits volumes.
If you want housing exposure that pays you to be patient, start small here and add on weakness. Watch the monthly housing starts print for your confirmation signal.
Dividend Increases
American Financial Group (AFG) raised its annual common dividend 10.2% to $3.88 per share ($0.97 quarterly), payable in October 2026, marking its 21st consecutive year of increases.
SS&C Technologies (SSNC) lifted its quarterly payout 11.1% to $0.30 per share, payable September 15 to holders of record September 1.
Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) bumped its Q3 dividend to $0.86 per share.
MDU Resources (MDU) boosted its quarterly to $0.145 per share, an annualized $0.56.
Dividend Decreases
UWM Holdings (UWMC) suspended its quarterly dividend entirely after posting a $452 million Q2 loss and taking a $2.05 billion equity infusion from Oaktree.
Embecta (EMBC) slashed its quarterly from $0.15 to $0.01 per share, payable September 15 to holders of record August 27.
Papa John's (PZZA) suspended its dividend after North America comparable sales fell 8.3% in Q2.
Hidden AI Picks (Sponsored)
The obvious AI winners have already made headlines.
Chief Investment Strategist Alexander Green with The Oxford Club, believes the next wave could come from three lesser-known companies quietly dominating cybersecurity, retail automation and pharma.
He says investors should know these names before December 2026.
Click here to learn more
Trivia: Coca-Cola is one of Berkshire Hathaway's most famous long-term holdings. How long has Coca-Cola been paying dividends, and what has Berkshire's yield-on-cost grown to?
- Since 1962 — Berkshire's yield-on-cost on its original investment is now approximately 25%
- Since 1893 — Berkshire's yield-on-cost on its 1988 investment is now over 60%
- Since 1919 — Berkshire now earns more in annual dividends than it paid for the entire position
- Since 1945 — Berkshire paid $1.3 billion for its stake and now collects over $700 million per year
Upcoming Dividend Payers
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) goes ex-dividend Tuesday, August 25, with the $1.34 quarterly payment hitting your account September 8 (yield ~2.0% on Friday's $270.24 close). You need to own it before Tuesday's open for that check to be yours.
3M (MMM) goes ex-dividend tomorrow, Monday, August 24, paying $0.78 per share on September 11. At Friday's $178.96 close the annualized $3.12 works out to about 1.7%, which is thin, but this is a 100-plus year payout record attached to an industrial that has finally stopped shrinking.
LyondellBasell (LYB) also goes ex-dividend Monday, with $0.69 per share landing August 31. At Friday's $67.53 close that is a 4.1% yield, and the payment hits your account a week after the ex-date, which is unusually fast. Chemicals are still working through a soft cycle, so treat the yield as compensation for cyclical risk rather than a free lunch.
T-Mobile (TMUS) goes ex-dividend Friday, August 28, with $1.02 per share payable September 10. The yield is only about 2.2% at the $183.04 close, but this is a four-year-old dividend growing off a business that generates more free cash flow every quarter.
eBay (EBAY) rounds out the week on Friday, August 28, paying $0.31 per share on September 11 for a yield near 1.2% at $104.13. Small payout, but the buyback behind it does most of the shareholder-return work.
Everything Else
🛒 Walmart’s weak quarter dragged Costco and Dollar Tree lower last week as rising fuel costs raised fresh concerns about consumer spending.
🚜 Deere bucked the broader market decline after raising its profit forecast, helped by stronger demand from construction and infrastructure projects.
🛢️ Energy stocks held up better than most of the market into Friday’s close, with WTI settling near $87 after a five-session run that boosted cash-flow expectations across the sector.
🏦 Rising long-term bond yields are putting renewed pressure on defensive sectors such as consumer staples and healthcare, which were among last week’s weakest groups with the 10-year finishing at 4.74%.
🏗️ Utilities remain an interesting income trade as investors look for steadier earnings and dividends during a more volatile stretch for growth stocks.
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
