Alright, here goes nothing. This is me trying to make sense of the world. It’s a bit like a puzzle with missing pieces sometimes, but let’s jump in.
So, there’s all this excitement about AI—like a kid who’s just had way, way too much candy. But, of course, there are those annoying things like tariffs and economic gremlins that just refuse to disappear. You know the type. Amidst all this chaos, folks are still eyeing those juicy dividend-paying stocks. I’m guessing income doesn’t sound too bad right now, right? Anyway, Wall Street analysts, and TipRanks, because why not, have thrown some picks into the ring. Let’s see what the fuss is all about.
ConocoPhillips
First up, ConocoPhillips. Oil, gas, the whole shebang. They tossed a whopping $2.5 billion back at shareholders in early 2025—big numbers, right? $1.5 billion came from share buybacks, and $1 billion as dividends. And for numbers lovers, that’s a 3.3% yield.
Scott Hanold from RBC Capital feels pretty good about this one. He’s waving the buy flag with a $115 target—makes him sound optimistic. His logic? ConocoPhillips is doing the money dance across commodity prices. Apparently, they’ve got this big pool of assets, like toys to play with, so they can keep shareholders happy even when things go south. Plus, that Permian Basin stuff is their golden goose, or something like that. And Scott is ranked 12 out of 9,800 analysts, so maybe he’s onto something. Or not. Who knows.
U.S. Bancorp
Next is U.S. Bancorp, doing all the fancy finance stuff. Dividends? $0.50 quarterly, making it a 4.2% yield. Gerard Cassidy, another of those analyst folks, is endorsing it with a $50 price target. He’s into this new CEO person, Gunjan Kedia, who’s aiming high on operating leverage. 270 basis points were reported only recently. Not too shabby?
Cassidy thinks they’re on a roll—or at least will be—because of solid groundwork over the past decade. USB is at some sort of turning point, kind of like a character in one of those novels who suddenly finds themselves. Apparently, underperformance is making a U-turn or something like that.
HP Inc.
Lastly, there’s HP, giving out a $0.2894 quarterly dividend, with a 4.5% yield. Even with tariffs waving their scary flags, analyst Amit Daryanani is on board, rating it a buy with a $29 target. Ernest Nicolas, HP’s enterprise bigwig, gave insights that kept Daryanani’s spirits high. Kind of like that bit of advice from a mentor you never thought you’d need.
HP is reshuffling manufacturing like they’re playing a giant game of Risk—moving pieces to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia. Maybe Mexico too. They’ve got goals—a “Future Ready” plan that’s all about squeezing out $2 billion in cost savings. Artificial intelligence is part of their toolbox—let’s hope it’s more friend than foe.
Daryanani is still up there among the ranks, so maybe his insights hold water.
There you have it. Wall Street and their favorites. Tangled in numbers and forecasts, but if it wobbles like a jelly, there might be something to it. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s all a dance of chance.
