Image Source: Pixabay

Strong businesses with high dividend payouts, competitive advantages, and future growth potential can be phenomenal long-term investments.

The beauty of earning passive income is that it allows investors to generate income for doing almost nothing. Quality dividend stocks can grow their payouts each year, even during recessions.

The following 3 dividend stocks have high dividend yields, making them ideal choices for passive income investments.

Whirlpool Corp. (WHR)

Whirlpool Corporation, founded in 1955 and headquartered in Benton Harbor, MI, is a leading home appliance company with top brands Whirlpool, KitchenAid, and Maytag.

Roughly half of the company’s sales are in North America, but Whirlpool does business around the world under twelve principal brand names. The company, which employs about 44,000 people, generated nearly $17 billion in sales in 2024.

On January 29th, 2025, Whirpool reported fourth quarter 2024 results. Sales for the quarter totaled $4.14 billion, down 18.7% from fourth quarter 2023. Ongoing earnings per diluted share was $4.57 for the quarter, 19% higher than the previous year’s $3.85 per share.

Whirlpool issued its 2025 guidance, seeing ongoing earnings-per-share coming in at approximately $10.00 on revenue of $15.8 billion. Additionally, Whirlpool expects cash provided by operating activities to total roughly $1 billion, with $500 to $600 million in free cash flow.

Whirlpool has strong brands, and its competitive advantages include its global presence and a strong control over its costs, which is why the company generates higher margins than its peers.

WHR stock currently yields 7.6%.

Hess Midstream LP (HESM)

Hess Midstream LP is a Master Limited Partnership, or MLP, that owns and operates midstream assets primarily located in the Bakken and Three Forks Shale plays in North Dakota. It provides oil, gas and water midstream services to Hess and third-party customers in the U.S.

Hess Midstream has long-term commercial contracts, which extend through 2033. Its contracts are 100% fee-based which minimize the exposure of the company to commodity prices. About 85% of the revenues of Hess Midstream are protected by minimum-volume commitments.

In late January, Hess Midstream reported (1/29/25) financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Throughput volumes grew 15% for gas processing and gas gathering over the prior year’s quarter thanks to higher production and higher gas capture. As a result, revenue grew 11% and earnings-per-share grew 24%, from $0.55 to $0.68.

Management provided strong guidance for 2025 thanks to strong business momentum in all segments. It expects 10% growth of throughput volumes, 11% growth of adjusted EBITDA and at least 5% annual growth of distributions until 2027. It also expects to reduce leverage ratio (Net Debt to EBITDA) below 2.5x by the end of 2026.

Hess Midstream has been consistently growing its earnings thanks to growing production of Hess and annual fee hikes linked to inflation. It has promising growth prospects ahead, primarily thanks to secular growth in gas capture. The company expects to grow its gas and oil volumes by 10% per year until 2026 and by more than 5% in 2027.

HESM units currently yield 7.0%.

Western Union (WU)

The Western Union Company is the world leader in the business of domestic and international money transfers. The company has a network of approximately 550,000 agents globally and operates in more than 200 countries.

About 90% of agents are outside of the US. Western Union operates two business segments, Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) and Other (bill payments in the US and Argentina).

Western Union reported mixed Q4 2024 results on February 4th, 2025. Revenue increased 1% and diluted GAAP earnings per share increased to $1.14 in the quarter, compared to $0.35 in the prior year on higher revenue and a $0.75 tax benefit on reorganizing the international operations. Revenue rose, despite challenges in Iraq on higher Banded Digital transactions and Consumer Services volumes.

CMT revenue fell 4% year-over-year even with 3% higher transaction volumes. Branded Digital Money Transfer CMT revenues increased 7% as transactions rose 13%. Digital revenue is now 25% of total CMT revenue and 32% of transactions.

Consumer Services revenue rose 56% on new products and expansion of retail foreign exchange offerings. The firm launched a media network business, expanded retail foreign exchange, and grew retail money orders.

WU stock currently yields 8.7%.

More By This Author:

Top 10 High Growth Dividend Aristocrats For 2025 & Beyond
10 Passive Income Stocks With 6%+ Dividend Yields
10 Dividend Dynamos Combining High Yields With Robust Growth