Enterprise Products Partners has a high yield of 6.8%, supported by a reliable fee-based business.
Bank of Nova Scotia, yielding 4.5%, is in the midst of a turnaround and the effort is progressing well.
WP Carey REIT, which has a yield of 5.5%, has reset its business in 2023 and growth is starting again.
10 Stocks We Like More Than Enterprise Products Partners ›
If you are disappointed by S&P 500his (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) poor little yield of 1.2%, don’t worry. There are other, higher yielding options available. Some of the choices such as Enterprise product partners(NYSE: EPD), Bank of Nova Scotia(NYSE: BNS)and WP Carey(NYSE: WPC)not only do they have much more attractive returns, but these returns are also backed by attractive businesses.
Here’s why you might want to jump on this high-yielding trio this December.
Image source: Getty Images.
When most investors think of an energy stock, they probably think of volatile oil prices. This is not a mistake; the energy sector can be very volatile.
However, Enterprise Products Partners actually operates in the least volatile niche of the energy sector, the midstream. It owns energy infrastructure assets and its customers pay fees for the use of those assets. The price of energy is less important than the demand for energy, which is high most of the time, given the importance of energy to the modern world.
So when you look at the whopping 6.8% yield of this Master Limited Partnership (MLP), you shouldn’t dismiss the income opportunity it represents. Not only is the return backed by a reliable business model, but the distribution has grown annually for 27 consecutive years.
Enterprise also has an investment-rated balance sheet. And its distributable cash flow covers distribution by about 1.7 times, so there’s plenty of room for adversity before a distribution cut is in the cards.
If you like boring income stocks, you’ll find North American giant Enterprise Products Partners attractive, even though it operates in the highly volatile energy space.
If a slow, boring dividend stock isn’t your speed, you might want to consider the low-risk turnaround story that supports Bank of Nova Scotia’s high 4.5% yield. This Canadian banking giant has paid a dividend every year since 1833, which is approaching an incredible 200 years. Clearly, being a reliable dividend stock is important to the company.
However, even reliable dividend stocks fall on hard times. Scotiabank, as the company is more commonly known, hit the road as it sought to grow in Central and South America. It was looking to differentiate itself from its Canadian peers, most of whom opted to focus on growth in the United States. Scotiabank’s approach hasn’t worked as hoped, so it’s shifting gears. That has some investors worried about the future, given that the turnaround has been spurred by lagging financial results.
If you think in decades rather than days, Scotiabank could be an attractive investment choice. This is largely due to the fact that it is making solid progress in its overhaul, exiting less desirable markets and rapidly expanding its exposure in the US through the use of partnerships.
The best evidence of management confidence, meanwhile, comes from the dividend, which held steady in 2024 as the turnaround began, but was raised again in 2025. If you like a good turnaround story, Scotiabank’s high yield could be right for your portfolio.
While Scotiabank is still working on its recovery, real estate investment trust (REIT) WP Carey is emerging successfully from its own overhaul. It wasn’t quite a modern change for dividend investors, given that the REIT reinstated the lower dividend at the end of 2023 when it exited the office sector. However, the move set the stage for faster growth going forward now that the troubled office portfolio is gone and the business is focused on industrial, warehouse and retail properties.
The biggest telling thing here, though, is that in the very quarter after the dividend reset, WP Carey started raising its dividend again. Since then it has increased the dividend every quarter. While a dividend cut is never a good thing, WP Carey’s cut was a strategic decision taken from a position of strength. That power begins to manifest itself even more strongly.
The REIT’s adjusted funds from operations (FFO) rose an attractive 6.5% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2025. It also raised its full-year 2025 guidance.
While it is too early for WP Carey to provide guidance for 2026, the strength of the business suggests the future is bright. That’s good news if you like reliable dividend stocks with high yields. WP Carey’s 5.5% yield, for reference, is well above the market and REIT average of 3.9%.
December is only a few days away and the holiday season hasn’t really started yet. You can give yourself an early gift with high-dividend-yielding stocks like Enterprise, Scotiabank and WP Carey. While they’re likely to attract different types of investors, if you take the time to get to know them, at least one is likely to find its way into your portfolio before 2026.
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Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Bank Of Nova Scotia and WP Carey. The Motley Fool recommends Bank Of Nova Scotia and Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
3 Top Dividend Stocks to Buy in December was originally published by The Motley Fool
