Published on February 23rd, 2026 by Bob Ciura
Dividend investing is ultimately about replacing your working income with a passive income stream for a secure retirement and financial freedom.
The reality of inflation means your income stream can’t just be static. It must be perpetually growing.
To build your perpetual dividend machine, you must invest in a reasonably diversified basket of income securities that have the following characteristics:
Pay dividends (create income), the higher the yield the better
Are likely to grow their payments, the faster the better
Have safe dividends, so you are likely to see stable or better income during a recession
Dividend investments should be safe, growing income securities with at least decent yields.
With this in mind, we created a downloadable list of over 130 Dividend Champions.
You can download your free copy of the Dividend Champions list, along with relevant financial metrics like price-to-earnings ratios, dividend yields, and payout ratios, by clicking on the link below:
The Dividend Champions have raised their dividends for over 25 years in a row.
The following 10 U.S.-based dividend stocks have increased their payouts for over 25 years, placing them on the Dividend Champions list.
They also have high yields of 2.5% or higher, which is more than double current S&P 500 average yield of 1.1%.
Lastly, they have our top Dividend Risk Scores of ‘C’ or higher, to focus on the stocks most likely to maintain their dividends, even in a recession.
As a result, they could be considered to be top stocks for building perpetually growing retirement income.
Table of Contents
The 10 stocks below are ranked by annual expected returns, from lowest to highest.
Perpetual Income Stock: Arrow Financial (AROW)
Annual Expected Returns: 12.7%
Arrow Financial Corporation is a multi-bank holding company based in Glen Falls, New York. The company operates through two main subsidiary banks, the Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Company, and the Saratoga National Bank and Trust Company.
Arrow Financial Corporation is also the parent company of North Country Investment Advisers and Update Agency, an insurance agency. The company is a small cap, and it produces about $163 million in annual revenue.
Arrow posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on January 29th, 2026. Earnings for the quarter came to 85 cents per share, while Q4 revenue was $43.41 million.
The bank posted quarterly net interest income of $35.1 million, which was a record. Net interest margin was also a record for the quarter, coming in at 3.25% on an adjusted basis, up slightly from the prior quarter.
The bank noted elevated average municipal deposits negatively impacted net interest margin by four basis points.
For the full year, NIM came to 3.19% on an adjusted basis, which was up sharply from 2024’s 2.74%.
Net charge-offs for the year were 0.19%, while they were just 0.08% in the fourth quarter, signifying exemplary credit quality. Tangible book value ended the quarter at $24.71 per share, which was up 3.6% from the prior quarter.
Arrow boosted its dividend by 3.4% to a new payout of $1.20 annually, which would be its 30th consecutive year of dividend increases.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on AROW (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: Cass Information Systems (CASS)
Annual Expected Returns: 12.9%
Cass Information Systems offers payment and data processing services to US-based manufacturing, distribution, and retail businesses.
In addition, Cass offers invoice rating, payment processing, auditing, accounting, and transportation information services.
The company operates in two segments: Information Services and Banking Services, generating most of its revenue from the Information Services segment.
On January 22nd, 2025, Cass Information Systems announced its Q4 2025 results, posting non-GAAP EPS of $0.68, which beats estimates by $0.04, and total revenues of $49.89 million.
Cass Information Systems ended 2025 with record results, reporting full-year net income of $35.1 million, nearly doubling the prior year’s $19.2 million.
Return on average equity reached 14.98% and return on average assets 1.43%, underscoring improved profitability across the platform.
Net interest income climbed 19.8% for the year, fueled by balance sheet growth and margin expansion, while facility dollar volumes rose 14.7% and average accounts and drafts payable increased 14.9%.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CASS (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: PepsiCo Inc. (PEP)
Annual Expected Returns: 13.4%
PepsiCo is a global food and beverage company that generates almost $94 billion in annual sales. The company’s products include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Frito-Lay chips, Gatorade, Tropicana orange juice and Quaker foods.
The company has more than 20 $1 billion brands in its portfolio.
On February 3rd, 2026, PepsiCo announced that it would increase its annualized dividend by 4.0% to $5.92 starting with the payment that was made in June 2026, extending the company’s dividend growth streak to 54 consecutive years.
That same day, PepsiCo released fourth quarter and full year results for the period ending December 31st, 2025. For the quarter, revenue grew 5.6% to $29.3 billion, which beat estimates by $370 million.
Adjusted earnings-per-share of $2.26 compared favorably to $1.96 the prior year, which was $0.02 more than expected.
For the year, revenue grew 2.3% to $93.9 billion while adjusted earnings-per-share of $8.14 was down from $8.16 in 2024. Organic sales grew 2.1% for the quarter and 1.7% for the year.
For the quarter, food volume fell 2% while beverages grew 1%. PepsiCo Beverages North America’s organic revenue improved 2% for the period even as volume decreased by 4%.
Revenue for PepsiCo Foods North America as lower by 1%, largely due to divestitures. Food volume declined 1%.
The International Beverages segment grew 2% due to 3% volume growth. Revenues in Europe/Middle East/Africa were up 5%. Food volume declined 5%, but this was offset by a 1% gain in beverages.
Currency was a 7% headwind for this region. Latin America Foods increased 5% and Asia Pacific Foods grew 4%.
PepsiCo provided guidance for 2026 as well, with the company expecting organic sales in a range of 2% to 4%. The company expects earnings-per-share growth in a range of 4% to 6%.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on PEP (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: T. Rowe Price Group (TROW)
Annual Expected Returns: 13.5%
T. Rowe Price Group, founded in 1937 and headquartered in Baltimore, MD, is one of the largest publicly traded asset managers.
The company provides a broad array of mutual funds, sub-advisory services, and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans, and financial intermediaries.
T. Rowe Price had assets under management (AUM) of nearly $1.8 trillion as of the end of Q3 2025.
T. Rowe Price announced third-quarter results on October 31st, 2025.
Source: Investor Resources
Revenue for the quarter grew 5.6% to $1.89 billion, though this was $10 million less than expected. Adjusted earnings-per-share of $2.81 compared favorably to $2.57 in the prior year and was $0.27 above estimates.
During the quarter, AUMs totaled $1.77 trillion, which represented growth of 5.4 % year-over-year, but a decline of 1.1% sequentially. Market appreciation of $89.1 billion was offset by net cash outflows of $7.9 billion. Operating expenses of $1.25 billion increased 6.7% year-over-year and 0.4% quarter-over-quarter.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on TROW (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: Tompkins Financial (TMP)
Annual Expected Returns: 13.6%
Tompkins Financial is a regional financial services holding company headquartered in Ithaca, NY that can trace its roots back more than 180 years. It has total assets of about $8 billion, which produce about $300 million in annual revenue.
The company offers a wide range of services, including checking and deposit accounts, time deposits, loans, credit cards, insurance services, and wealth management to its customers in New York and Pennsylvania.
Tompkins posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on January 30th, 2026, and results capped what was a record year with a record for the fourth quarter as well.
The bank ended 2025 with earnings-per-share of $6.31, just cresting the former record from 2021.
Net interest margin in Q4 was 3.42%, which was up 22 basis points from the third quarter, and soared 49 basis points higher from the year-ago period. Total average cost of funds of 1.71% was better by 12 basis points from Q3, and by 17 basis points from the year-ago period.
Total loans were up $158 million, or 2.5%, from the September quarter. From the end of 2024, total loans rose 7.1%, or $426 million. Total deposits ended the year at $6.9 billion, off 1.6% from Q3, but 7.2% higher than the end of 2024.
That put the loan-to-deposit ratio at 92.9% at the end of 2025, up from 89.2% in Q3 and flat year-over-year. That’s extremely high by any standard, which increases risk but also limits growth.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on TMP (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: Norwood Financial (NWFL)
Annual Expected Returns: 14.1%
Norwood Financial is a bank holding company that operates through its subsidiary, Wayne Bank. The company is an independent community bank with over 15 offices in Northeastern Pennsylvania and 14 offices in Delaware, Sullivan, Ontario, Otsego and Yates Counties, New York.
It offers a range of personal and business credit services, trust and investment products, and real estate settlement services to the consumers, businesses, non-profit organizations and municipalities in each of the communities that the company serves.
As of December 31st, 2025, Norwood Financial Corp. had total assets of $2.42 billion, loans outstanding of $1.85 billion, and total deposits of $2.08 billion.
On January 22nd, 2026, Norwood Financial Corp. released its fourth quarter results. For the quarter, the company reported a net income of $7.4 million, down from $8.3 million in the third quarter of 2025 but a significant improvement from a net loss of $12.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Reported quarterly earnings per diluted share were $0.80, compared to $0.89 in Q3 2025 and $(1.54) in the year-ago period.
The earnings reflect continued momentum following the strategic investment portfolio repositioning undertaken in the fourth quarter of 2024, alongside benefits from improved asset yields and deposit growth.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on NWFL (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: John Wiley & Sons (WLY)
Annual Expected Returns: 14.8%
John Wiley & Sons is a publishing and research company whose operations are split into three segments: Research, Publishing, and Solutions.
The company offers scientific, technical, medical and scholarly research journals, reference books, databases, clinical decision support tools, laboratory manuals, scientific and education books, and test preparation services.
Its services also include learning, development and assessment services for businesses and professionals and online program management services for higher education institutions.
When John Wiley & Sons reported its second quarter (fiscal 2026) earnings results, the company announced that revenue totaled $422 million during the period, a decline of 1% versus the prior year’s quarter.
Earnings-per-share came in at $1.10 for the quarter, which beat the consensus estimate, as analysts had predicted a considerably smaller profit for the quarter. Earnings-per-share were up by 12% compared to the previous year’s period on an adjusted basis.
John Wiley generated earnings-per-share of $3.64 during fiscal 2025, and it is expected that fiscal 2026 will be stronger. For the current year, management forecasts earnings-per-share of $3.90 to $4.35.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on WLY (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: Community Financial System (CBU)
Annual Expected Returns: 15.2%
Community Financial System was formed in 1983 and since that time, it has expanded to become a diversified financial services company with more than 200 locations in the northeastern U.S.
Its principal business is traditional community banking, but it also owns a large benefits administration business, in addition to offering a variety of insurance products.
Community Financial posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on January 15th, 2026, and results were mixed. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to $1.12, which missed estimates by a penny. Revenue was up almost 10% year-on-year to $215 million, beating estimates by just over $2 million.
Net interest income was $133 million, up more than 11% year-over-year, and up about 4% from the third quarter. Net interest margin was 3.37%, up 19 basis points from the year-ago period and 20 basis points from Q3.
Deposits ended the quarter at $14.39 billion, up 2.3% from Q3, and up 7% year-on-year. Growth was entirely attributable to the acquisition of a Santander branch.
Separately, Community Financial has entered into an agreement to acquire ClearPoint Federal Bank & Trust, which offers expertise to funeral homes and cemeteries with $1.5 billion in assets under management.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CBU (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: H2O America (HTO)
Annual Expected Returns: 17.5%
H2O America, formerly known as SJW Group, is a water utility company that produces, purchases, stores, purifies and distributes water to consumers and businesses in the Silicon Valley area of California, the area north of San Antonio, Texas, Connecticut, and Maine.
It also has a small real estate division that owns and develops properties for residential and warehouse customers in California and Tennessee. The company generates about $670 million in annual revenues.
On July 8th, 2025, H2O America announced that it purchased Quadvest for $540 million. This purchase adds to the company’s position in the Houston area.
Quadvest has 50,500 active connections, almost 91,000 connections under contract and pending development, 50 water treatment plants, 27 wastewater treatment plants, and 89 lift stations and underground assets.
On October 28th, 2025, H2O America reported third quarter results for the period ending September 30th, 2025. For the quarter, revenue improved 6.9% to $240.6 million, which beat estimates by $2.1 million.
Earnings-per-share of $1.27 compared favorably to earnings-per-share of $1.18 in the prior year and was $0.09 better than expected.
For the quarter, higher water rates overall added $21.2 million to results and higher customer usage added $700K. Operating production expenses totaled $175.9 million, which was a 6% increase from the prior year.
The increases were due to higher pensions costs, salaries and wages, and inflationary increases.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on HTO (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Perpetual Income Stock: Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
Annual Expected Returns: 19.3%
Automatic Data Processing is one of the largest business services outsourcing companies in the world, with more than 700,000 corporate customers.
The company provides payroll services, human resources technology, and other business operations. The company generates nearly $22 billion of annual revenues.
Automatic Data Processing released Q1 earnings results on October 29th, 2025.
Source: Investor Presentation
Adjusted earnings-per-share of $2.49 was $0.05 better than expected while revenue grew 7.2% to $5.18 billion and beat estimates by $50 million.
Employer Services revenue improved 7% to $3.49 billion while segment earnings were up 6% to $1.23 billion. PEO Service revenue also increased 7% to $1.69 billion, though segment earnings were down to $219 million.
Automatic Data Processing also has raised its dividend 10.4% to $1.70, extending the company’s dividend growth streak to 51 consecutive years.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on ADP (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Additional Reading
The Dividend Champions list is not the only way to quickly screen for stocks that regularly pay rising dividends.
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