The Smartest Dividend Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now

You really can secure both healthy distributions and capital appreciation. There are some high-yielding stocks out there that could deliver even stronger gains in the form of upticks. Realty Income (O +1.17%) and Coca-Cola (KO 0.26%) are two dividend payers that can also deliver capital appreciation in 2026 and beyond.

You don’t need a lot of money to hop on these dividend trains with long histories of hiking their rates. Your next $1,000 is enough to grab 12 to 15 shares of these two stocks. Let’s take a closer look.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Realty Income

If you’re on the lookout for safe REITs, it would be surprising if Realty Income isn’t at or near the top of your list. This is the country’s largest real estate investment trust operating on a triple net lease model. This finds the tenant responsible for paying property taxes, insurance, and routine maintenance costs.

Passing on variable occupancy costs to the renter may seem burdensome to the tenant, but defaults are rare in Realty Income’s portfolio. It begins 2026 with a healthy occupancy rate of 98.9%, just above where it was a year earlier as well as three months ago.

A good reason for Realty Income’s conservative risk profile is the quality of its tenants. Recession-resilient supermarkets and convenience stores are its two largest industry groups, combining for more than a fifth of its portfolio. Its 4.9% yield may be low compared to riskier REITs, but that’s well above today’s highest-yielding money market funds.

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NYSE: O

Realty Income

Today’s Change

(1.17%) $0.78

Current Price

$66.77

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$61B

Day’s Range

$66.10 - $67.02

52wk Range

$50.71 - $67.15

Volume

112K

Avg Vol

6.4M

Gross Margin

48.71%

Dividend Yield

4.89%

Realty Income posted solid fourth-quarter results this week. Adjusted funds from operation (AFFO) – a critical metric for REITs, as it dictates their payouts – rose to $1.08 a share in the fourth quarter and $4.28 a share for 2025. The monthly distributions it declared last year amounted to just 75% of its AFFO.

Its guidance was encouraging. Realty Income keeps building out its portfolio, and the base rents tenants pay are often indexed to increase annually with inflation. Realty now sees AFFO per share of $4.38 to $4.42 this year. It will keep one of the market’s longest streaks of quarterly – yes, quarterly – hikes, going for at least the near future.

Realty Income is unique in that it pays out monthly – yes, monthly – distributions. It has also now increased its dividend in 113 consecutive quarters. It’s a safe bet to boost that run to 114 quarters in March.

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NYSE: KO

Coca-Cola

Today’s Change

(-0.26%) $-0.21

Current Price

$80.26

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$346B

Day’s Range

$80.02 - $80.89

52wk Range

$65.35 - $81.09

Volume

3.7M

Avg Vol

18M

Gross Margin

61.75%

Dividend Yield

2.54%

2. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a Dividend King, having raised its distributions for at least 50 consecutive years. The beverage stock stretched that streak to 64 years last week, longer than all but eight other members of that regal crew. Set aside the ill-placed narrative that consumption of sugary soft drinks peaked years ago. Coca-Cola is a global company with a strong catalog across various beverage categories.

Revenue growth has now been positive for five consecutive years. The pace has decelerated over the last four years, but analysts expect Coca-Cola’s top-line growth to accelerate again next year. In the meantime, margins continue to widen for this low-beta investment, which offers a respectable 2.6% yield. Its 27.3% net margin for 2025 is its healthiest showing in 15 years.

As one of its old jingles used to go, Coke is it.