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Hey, Zach Here!

Let’s lock in for another week of investing…

Today’s topics:

1. 5 stocks to watch this week

2. Google crushes earnings

3. My buys (big)

4. New dividend raises

The Key Story

Top 5 Stocks Reporting Earnings This Week

1. Altria (MO)

• Dividend Yield: 7%

• Dividend Growth Rate: 4.26% three year CAGR

• Earnings Date: April 29th, 2025

• Quarterly EPS Estimates: EPS $1.19 (est)

What I’m Watching:

• High cash flow. Make sure the business is stable and on pace for slow growth.

• Looking at growth rate in oral nicotine, “On!”, and new vape NJOY. The 2 growth businesses for Altria.

• Outlook?

Verdict:

• I get paid a $570 dividend from MO stock this week! Woo-hoo

• A reliable, high yield, dividend stock.

• Expect low-mid-single digit annual dividend growth.

• Dominant business model that is inflation resistant.

2. Visa (V)

• Dividend Yield: 0.70%

• Dividend Growth Rate: +17.26% 10 year CAGR

• Earnings Date: April 29th, 2025

• Quarterly EPS Estimates: $2.68 (est)

What I’m Watching:

• Consumer spending still strong?

• Outlook for 2025?

Verdict:

• Dominant business. Network effects and high margins.

• Expect double digit dividend growth.

📅 Want to keep up with earnings news?

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👉 See all stocks this week!
Top dividend stocks: (ADP, MA, DPZ, CAT, WM, QCOM, VICI, LLY, HSY, XOM, etc)

3. Microsoft (MSFT)

• Dividend Yield: 0.85%

• Dividend Growth Rate: +10.35% 10 year CAGR

• Earnings Date: April 30th, 2025

• Quarterly EPS Estimates: $3.22 (est)

What I’m Watching:

• Microsoft azure cloud growth rate? AI specific cloud growth rate?

• Expectations for CapEx spend on AI datacenters.

• Outlook for 2025?

Verdict:

• Dominant tech company. A leader in cloud & AI.

• Great balance sheet. Heavy cash position.

• High percentage of subscription revenue.

4. Meta Platforms (META)

• Dividend Yield: 0.38% (new dividend)

• Dividend Growth Rate: +5%. First increase ever

• Earnings Date: April 30th, 2025

• Quarterly EPS Estimates: $5.22 (est)

What I’m Watching:

• Is Capex growing?

• Highest earnings ever?

• Outlook? Is ad market still strong.

Verdict:

• Network effects powering dominant social media platforms.

• One of the dominant digital ad businesses.

• Leader in AI and datacenter infrastructure.

• Incredible financial strength, margins, and balance sheet.

• High capacity to grow dividend into the future.

5. Apple (AAPL)

• Dividend Yield: 0.48%

• Dividend Growth Rate: +7.84% 10 year CAGR

• Earnings Date: May 1st, 2025

• Quarterly EPS Estimates: $1.61 (est)

What I’m Watching:

• Tariff impact? Expect strong quarter, but rest of the year is the question.

• Outlook? Will they have to pull outlook with Tariff uncertainty.

Verdict:

• Dominant business with economic moat around their product/software ecosystem.

• Slowing top line growth as iPhone plateaus. Services business is growing.

• Large percentage hardware revenue and China manufacturing exposure. Apple may be the largest business, most impacted by tariffs.

Earnings Update

Google crushes earnings! I’m buying more

Alphabet (Google) Q1 2025 at a Glance

• Revenue: $90.2 B (+12% YoY)

  • Google Services $77.3 B (+10% YoY) — Search & YouTube Ads still growing

  • Google Cloud $12.3 B (+28% YoY)

• Profitability: Operating income +20%; margin 34%

  • EPS $2.81 (+49%), beating estimates by 39%

• Shareholder returns: 1st dividend raise (+5%) ▸ yield ~0.5% on a 7-10 % payout

  • New $70 B buyback program

Why It’s My 4th-Largest Position ($23 K)

• Trading less than ~20× trailing earnings. value pricing for a fast growing tech and AI leader

• Cash machine: Search drove $50.7 B this quarter and funds the rest of the empire

• Fortress balance sheet: $95.6 B cash, net debt −$70 B

• Ten-year CAGR: revenue/share 19%, free-cash-flow/share 21%

Growth Engines

• AI & Search: AI Overviews now serve 1.5 B users/month, keeping Search sticky and growing

• Subscriptions: YouTube Premium, Google One, etc. surpassed 270 M paid subs

• Cloud: Operating income jumped to $2.1 B

Key Watch-Out

• Cap-ex set to exceed $70 B in 2025 for AI datacenters — could slow free-cash-flow and near-term dividend growth, but critical for long-term AI leadership.

My Move
I’m holding Alphabet as a core dividend-growth play and will keep adding on dips. For a live look at my portfolio or to test the AI analyst I used, hop over to DividendData.com.

💰My Buys This Week

Last week, I bought a bunch of stocks after a sell off to start the week.

• 35 shares of $GOOGL at an average cost of $146.76

• 16 shares of $CRM at an average cost of $236.25

• 75 shares of $HESM at $36.21

• 50 shares of $MPLX at $48.95

If you become a member of dividenddata.com, you can get live access to my entire dividend growth portfolio.

🚀 New Dividend Raises:

Dividends keep growing!

• $GOOGL ( ▲ 1.68% ) - Alphabet raises dividend by 5% to $0.21; $70 billion buyback

• $FIX ( ▲ 5.64% ) - Comfort Systems raises dividend by 12.5% to $0.45

• $PH ( ▲ 0.2% ) - Parker-Hannifin raises dividend by 10.4% to $1.80

• $SYY ( ▼ 2.22% ) - Sysco increases dividend by ~6% to $0.54

• $AVY ( ▼ 1.65% ) - Avery Dennison raises quarterly dividend by 6.8% to $0.94/share

• $OTIS ( ▲ 0.21% ) - Otis Worldwide raises dividend by 8%

• $EFX ( ▼ 0.28% ) - Equifax raises dividend by 28%, $3B buyback

• $PSX ( ▼ 0.69% ) - Phillips 66 declares increases dividend by ~4% to $1.20

📅 Keep Investing. Stay informed.

– Zach
Founder, Dividend Data

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Disclaimer: Dividend Dividend (Dividend Data LLC) is not a professional financial service. All materials released from Dividend Data (Dividend Data LLC) are for educational and entertainment purposes. Dividend Data (Dividend Data LLC) is not a replacement for a professional's opinion. Contributors to the Dividend Data (Dividend Data LLC) might have equities mentioned in the newsletter