- Dividend Brief
- Posts
- Two Big Banks Just Hiked Their Payouts While a Household Name Killed Its Dividend
Two Big Banks Just Hiked Their Payouts While a Household Name Killed Its Dividend
Three heavyweights just moved the needle—and a handful of payouts are landing this week.
Q2 earnings season is off and running, and the split between winners and losers on the payout side is already widening.
Two of Wall Street's biggest financial names announced double-digit hikes this week on the back of record trading and dealmaking.
A legacy appliance icon went the other way, cutting its outlook roughly in half and pulling the dividend entirely.
Growth Picks (Sponsored)
Many investors are seeing solid gains in today’s market, but solid gains often hide opportunities with far greater potential.
A new analysis highlights the 5 Stocks Set to Double, selected from thousands of companies showing early signs of powerful growth.
These picks feature strong fundamentals and technical indicators that often appear before meaningful upside.
Past editions of this research uncovered gains of +175%, +498%, and +673%.
Download the 5 Stocks Set to Double. Free Today.
*This free resource is being sent by Zacks. We identify investment resources you may choose to use in making your own decisions. Use of this resource is subject to the Zacks Terms of Service.
*Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk. This material does not constitute investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Zacks Investment Research is not a licensed dealer, broker, or investment adviser.
Aesthetics
AbbVie Is Building a Bigger Future in Regenerative Aesthetics
AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) is expanding SkinMedica’s work in regenerative science, strengthening a part of the company that sits at the intersection of medical treatments, professional skincare, and consumer beauty demand.
The move gives AbbVie another way to grow its Allergan Aesthetics platform beyond its traditional prescription medicine business.
The bigger company story is diversification.
AbbVie already has major positions in immunology and oncology, but SkinMedica gives it direct exposure to dermatology practices, medical spas, and customers spending on advanced skincare.
Aesthetics Adds Another Growth Engine
Consumer-facing aesthetics provides AbbVie with a revenue stream distinct from medicines that depend on prescriptions, insurance coverage, and regulatory approval. Demand can be more sensitive to the economy, but successful products can also build lasting brand loyalty.
Put your attention on how AbbVie uses SkinMedica alongside Allergan Aesthetics. The company has an opportunity to offer a wider range of products before, during, and after professional skin treatments.
Future Strategy Moves Beyond Blockbusters
AbbVie still depends heavily on major drugs such as Skyrizi and Rinvoq. Expanding regenerative skincare gives the company another way to reduce that concentration over time without moving into an unfamiliar market.
If SkinMedica turns this scientific push into differentiated products, you have AbbVie building a broader healthcare company around skin health.
The advantage comes from combining research, professional relationships, established brands, and consumer access under one platform.
ABBV currently trades at $247 and pays a dividend of $6.92 per share, a yield of 2.80%.
Retail
No Banks, No Addresses, No Stores, and People Are Still Buying From Walmart
Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) has no physical stores in most of sub-Saharan Africa.
Yet African consumers are increasingly buying Walmart products through a growing network of package-forwarding startups that bridge the gap between American retailers and a continent of over a billion people.
The Middlemen Built the Bridge
Local startups give African shoppers a U.S. delivery address at a warehouse.
They buy from Walmart's website. The startup consolidates packages, ships them across the ocean, clears customs, and delivers to doorsteps in cities that often lack formal street addresses.
Payment happens through mobile phone accounts loaded with cash at local kiosks.
You cannot buy from Walmart without a bank card and a mailing address. These companies solved both problems without Walmart doing anything.
A Billion Consumers Walmart Has Not Reached Yet
Africa's internet penetration is climbing fast. Mobile money usage is widespread. A young, growing population wants access to global brands and products. The infrastructure to connect them to Walmart already exists and is scaling without Walmart's involvement.
The Question Walmart Has to Answer
Right now, third-party startups capture all the margin between Walmart's website and the African consumer. Walmart collects a sale but misses the delivery revenue, the customer relationship, and the data.
You discover that people on an entirely new continent are already buying from you without any help, and the only question left is whether you formalize that demand or let someone else own it permanently.
WMT currently trades at $113 and pays a dividend of $0.99 per share, a yield of 0.87%.
Top Picks (Sponsored)
Only a tiny percentage of stocks meet the criteria for this report.
Analysts have released a new edition highlighting seven names selected using multiple indicators.
Recent picks have delivered notable short-term gains, though results can vary.
The latest report is now available for a limited time.
Download the free report today.
*This free resource is being sent by Zacks. We identify investment resources you may choose to use in making your own decisions. Use of this resource is subject to the Zacks Terms of Service.
*Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk. This material does not constitute investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Zacks Investment Research is not a licensed dealer, broker, or investment adviser.
Healthcare
HCA Built a Powerhouse on Insured Patients, and That Foundation Just Cracked
HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA) just cut its annual profit forecast after a surge in uninsured patients overwhelmed the trends that had been driving the business forward. Affordable Care Act enrollment fell 13% this year after pandemic-era subsidies expired.
Millions lost coverage. Those patients are still showing up at HCA's hospitals. They just cannot pay. The largest for-profit hospital operator in America just reported what happens when the insurance safety net shrinks.
Fewer Insured Patients Change Everything
Elective surgeries are declining. Diagnostic visits are falling. Uncompensated care is rising. Each of those trends individually pressures a hospital system. All three hitting simultaneously forced HCA to revise its outlook downward.
The Subsidy Cliff Arrived
Extra government subsidies kept millions enrolled in health coverage during and after the pandemic. Those subsidies ended. Enrollment dropped fast. HCA is now operating in a market where your patient base is shrinking while your cost base is growing.
Not Just HCA's Problem
Other major hospital operators dropped on the same day. The coverage loss is industry-wide. Every hospital system in the country that benefited from expanded insurance enrollment now faces the same reversal.
You follow this story, and it becomes clear very quickly. This is not a one-quarter issue. It is a structural shift that redefines how the hospital business works until coverage stabilizes or something else fills the gap.
HCA currently trades at $373 and pays a dividend of $3.12 per share, a yield of 0.83%.
Dividend Stocks Worth Watching
Cummins (NYSE: CMI) just lifted its quarterly dividend 10% to $2.20 per share, payable September 3 to holders of record August 21. The engine maker has raised its dividend every year for well over a decade, and this hike lands as data center backup power demand is pushing generator orders to multi-year highs.
Not cheap on trailing earnings. But if you want a cyclical industrial with a shareholder-friendly capital allocation record and secular tailwinds from AI infrastructure buildouts, this is one of the cleaner ways to play it.
Add on any pullback tied to broader industrial weakness rather than chasing on the hike.
PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC) raised its quarterly dividend 17.6% in early July, one of the biggest bumps you'll see from a regional bank this cycle.
Loan growth has stabilized, net interest margin is inflecting higher as older low-yielding securities roll off, and the balance sheet cleared the Fed's stress test with room to spare.
If you want yield with a real growth kicker rather than a tired-looking payout, PNC is worth a hard look. Forward yield now sits comfortably above the S&P average, and management still has capacity to buy back stock alongside the higher dividend.
Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) declared a 2.8% distribution hike to $0.56 per unit for Q2, or $2.24 annualized, payable August 14. Smaller raise than the banks.
But EPD's whole appeal is boring consistency: 27 straight years of distribution growth, fee-based midstream cash flows, and coverage ratios that leave plenty of buffer.
If you're building the income side of a portfolio and can handle a K-1 at tax time, EPD keeps doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Dividend Increases
Goldman Sachs (GS): raised quarterly dividend 11.1% to $5.00 per share, payable September 29.
State Street (STT): raised quarterly dividend 10% to $0.92 per share.
PNC Financial (PNC): raised quarterly dividend 17.6%.
Cummins (CMI): raised quarterly dividend 10% to $2.20 per share, payable September 3.
Duke Energy (DUK): raised quarterly dividend $0.02 to $1.085 per share, payable September 16.
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD): raised quarterly distribution 2.8% to $0.56 per unit, payable August 14.
Dividend Decreases
Whirlpool (WHR): suspended its quarterly dividend entirely alongside a profit forecast cut of roughly 50%.
Mesabi Trust (MSB): cut distribution to $0.05 per unit, down from $0.12 in the same period last year.
Dow (DOW): recent cut from $0.70 to $0.35 per share is still working its way through the payout ratios.
Hidden Energy Suppliers (Sponsored)
Elon Musk’s next energy move may have nothing to do with EVs, rockets, or solar.
A new power technology, already used by the military, could help solve America’s growing energy bottleneck and reduce reliance on foreign oil.
A few little-known suppliers control key parts of the supply chain, and major tech leaders are already paying attention.
Poll: When evaluating a dividend stock, which growth metric matters most to you? |
Upcoming Dividend Payers
Agree Realty (ADC): Monthly $0.267 dividend, ex-date July 31, payable August 14.
Procter & Gamble (PG): Quarterly dividend, record date July 24, payable August 17.
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD): Record date July 31, payable August 14.
Cummins (CMI): Record date August 21, payable September 3.
Duke Energy (DUK): Payable September 16.
Goldman Sachs (GS): Payable September 29.
Everything Else
🔍 Three small-cap stocks across AI, energy, and emerging tech are showing subtle structural shifts that tend to appear before the biggest moves.
👵 Cooling inflation is pushing down early estimates for Social Security’s 2027 cost-of-living adjustment, which could mean a smaller benefit increase for retirees.
📉 Kevin Warsh says inflation could become “a thing of the past,” arguing the AI investment boom may lift productivity and improve the economic outlook.
⚖️ Apple won dismissal of a lawsuit tied to child sexual abuse material on iCloud, giving the company a legal victory in a sensitive platform liability dispute.
🔊 OpenAI’s first hardware device will reportedly be a speaker, signaling a push to bring its AI deeper into the consumer hardware market.
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