Wall Street ended yesterday in the red zone, dragged down by Alphabet’s GOOGL historic single-day plunge following a weak quarterly report. Alphabet’s unprecedented $500 billion loss in market cap proved too severe for the broader market to absorb, overshadowing gains across most individual stocks in the major U.S. indices.
With mega-cap tech stocks driving broader market momentum, investor sentiment remains mixed amid contrasting earnings results, as Amazon fell short of earnings expectations yesterday while Intel comfortably surpassed both revenue and earnings estimates.
Amid this high-stakes tech volatility, investors looking for steadier ground may want to pivot toward dividend growth stocks. Rather than relying on high growth drivers, a dividend-focused approach builds long-term wealth through compounding income and reliable cash flow.
Stocks with a strong history of year-over-year dividend growth can help build a resilient portfolio with greater potential for capital appreciation compared to simple dividend-paying or high-yield stocks.
We have selected five dividend growth stocks like GormanRupp GRC, Micron Technology MU, Corning GLW, Suncor Energy SU and Plains All American Pipeline PAA that could be solid choices for your portfolio.
Why Is Dividend Growth Better?
Stocks with a strong history of dividend growth are typically associated with mature companies that are less prone to sharp market swings, allowing them to serve as a hedge against economic or political uncertainty as well as broader market volatility. Their steadily rising payouts provide some measure of downside protection.
These companies are generally backed by solid fundamentals, making them attractive long-term dividend-growth investments. Key strengths include durable business models, consistent profitability, expanding cash flows, healthy liquidity, strong balance sheets and attractive valuations.
A consistent history of dividend growth underscores the potential for continued growth ahead.
Although these stocks do not necessarily have the highest yields, they have outperformed the broader stock market and other dividend-paying stocks over an extended period.
As a result, selecting dividend-growth stocks appears to be a winning strategy when other key parameters are taken into account.
5-Year Historical Dividend Growth Greater Than Zero: This selects stocks with a solid dividend growth history.
5-Year Historical Sales Growth Greater Than Zero: This represents stocks with a strong record of growing revenues.
5-Year Historical EPS Growth Greater Than Zero: This represents stocks with a solid earnings growth history.
Next 3-5 Year EPS Growth Rate Greater Than Zero: This represents the rate at which a company's earnings are expected to grow. Improving earnings should help companies sustain dividend payments.
Price/Cash Flow Less Than M-Industry: A ratio lower than the industry median indicates that a stock is undervalued within its industry, meaning an investor would pay less for the company’s cash flow.
52-Week Price Change Greater Than S&P 500 (Market Weight): This ensures that a stock has appreciated more than the S&P 500 over the past year.
Top Zacks Rank: Stocks having a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) generally outperform their peers in all types of market environments.
Growth Score of B or Better: Our research shows that stocks with a Growth Score of A or B, when combined with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2, offer the best upside potential.
These few criteria alone narrowed the universe from more than 7,700 stocks to just 16.
Here are five of the 16 stocks that fit the bill:
Ohio-based GormanRupp designs, manufactures and sells pumps and related equipment (pump and motor controls) for use in water, wastewater, construction, industrial, petroleum, original equipment, agricultural, fire protection, military and other liquid-handling applications. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GRC’s 2026 revenues suggests a year-over-year improvement of 6.5%. The stock boasts a long-term (three-to-five years) earnings growth rate of 13% and has an annual dividend yield of 1.02%.
GRC currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 and has a Growth Score of A.
Idaho-based Micron Technology manufactures and markets high-performance memory and storage technologies, including Dynamic Random Access Memory, NAND flash memory, NOR Flash and other technologies. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MU’s fiscal 2028 revenues suggests a year-over-year improvement of 108.4%. The stock boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 32.60% and has an annual dividend yield of 0.06%.
MU currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 and has a Growth Score of A.
Headquartered in New York, Corning is a multinational technology company specializing in specialty glass, ceramics and optical physics. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GLW's 2026 revenues suggests a year-over-year improvement of 16.9%. The stock boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 24.10% and an annual dividend yield of 0.85%.
GLW currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 and a Growth Score of B. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Canada-based Suncor Energy is an integrated energy company that extracts, refines, and sells petroleum products, crude oil and lower-carbon power. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SU’s 2026 revenues suggests a year-over-year improvement of 29.6%. The stock boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 33.50% and an annual dividend yield of 2.23%.
SU currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 and a Growth Score of B.
Headquartered in Texas, Plains All American Pipeline is involved in the transportation, storage, terminalling and marketing of crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL) and refined products in the United States and Canada. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PAA’s 2026 revenues suggests a year-over-year improvement of 42%. The stock boasts a long-term earnings growth rate of 1.60% and an annual dividend yield of 6.28%.
PAA currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 and a Growth Score of B.
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Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (PAA): Free Stock Analysis Report
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU): Free Stock Analysis Report
Corning Incorporated (GLW): Free Stock Analysis Report
Suncor Energy Inc. (SU): Free Stock Analysis Report
Gorman-Rupp Company (The) (GRC): Free Stock Analysis Report
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).