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High Yield Revival: 3 Cash-Rich Dividend Payers on Sale
Authored by Chris Markoch. First Published: 2/20/2026.
Key Points
- Market rotation is boosting demand for high-yield dividend stocks as investors shift from growth-heavy tech names to value-oriented companies with reliable cash flow.
- Omega Healthcare, Perrigo, and Omnicom offer yields well above the SPHD ETF benchmark, making them attractive options for income-focused portfolios in a lower-rate environment.
- Strong institutional ownership and durable business models support dividend reliability, helping investors balance income generation with defensive positioning during market volatility.
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Investors aren't putting cash under their mattresses, but they are taking some risk off the table. That has led to a rotation out of high-growth technology stocks and a renewed search for value.
One way to find that value is with dividend-paying stocks. The attraction is the reason behind the dividend: companies that pay high yields typically have steady cash flows, so investors can count on more reliable income.
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That makes dividend investing an important defense against market volatility and a way to generate yield if interest rates move lower. The timing and pace of rate cuts are unclear, but there is broad consensus that the next moves will be downward.
Critics warn that high yields can signal dividend traps — companies with no better use for cash than distributing it to shareholders. That can be true, but investors who prioritize income over growth focus on the reliability of the payout.
For investors who find this approach attractive, here are three high-yield names to consider. In this article, "high yield" means a yield above an exchange-traded fund (ETF) like the Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA: SPHD), which holds 50 of the least volatile, highest-dividend-yielding S&P 500 stocks. Its yield was 3.82% as of Feb. 18.
A Demographic Tailwind Supports This Healthcare REIT
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) fell out of favor during the AI-fueled tech boom in 2024 and 2025, but that changed in 2026 as income investors sought yield. By design, REITs must distribute approximately 90% of their taxable income to shareholders, typically as dividends.
That's the foundation for Omega Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: OHI). The company acquires and leases long-term care properties — such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and assisted living communities — under net-lease agreements. OHI owns 1,024 facilities in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
Omega Healthcare is positioned to benefit from the aging U.S. population, which should drive long-term demand for SNFs. In its December 2025 investor presentation, the company noted that more patients are discharged to SNFs than to any other type of post-acute care setting.
Regulatory limits on new supply should further support occupancy and pricing, creating a case for both growth and income. OHI stock is up 29% in the past 12 months and pays a 5.7% dividend yield, with an annual payout of $2.68 per share.
Deep Value Appeal With One of the Market's Highest Yields
Perrigo Company (NYSE: PRGO) offers a different high-yield option in the healthcare sector. Perrigo is a global supplier of over-the-counter (OTC) and self-care products and also produces generic prescription drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
The PRGO stock chart has been punishing over the past five years, falling more than 65%.
Still, the situation may be approaching "so bad it's good." Institutional ownership remains above 95%, and buyers have outnumbered sellers by roughly 2:1 over the past 12 months and nearly 4:1 in Q4 2025, suggesting that large investors see opportunity. PRGO is up 9% over the past three months.
Perrigo pays the highest yield on this list at 7.9%. That yield may keep income-focused investors interested while the company works through a class-action lawsuit related to its acquisition of Nestlé's infant formula plant.
A Steady Cash Generator Leveraging AI-Driven Marketing Demand
Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) is a global marketing and corporate communications holding company that owns some of the world's largest advertising agencies. It operates in more than 70 countries and serves over 5,000 clients.
This is a play on artificial intelligence: Omnicom has launched an AI-driven marketing intelligence platform intended to "help brands grow with greater clarity, speed, and measurable impact in the age of influence."
OMC stock has been largely range-bound over the past five years, delivering about 4.5% share price growth in that period. What makes the stock more compelling for income investors is its dividend: a 4.5% yield and a $3.29 annual payout per share.
Institutions increased holdings in the last quarter — perhaps in anticipation of the Super Bowl ad blitz — and overall institutional ownership remains around 91%, indicating Omnicom is a name to watch as income investors look for value.
Why Microsoft's Cloud Migrations Matter More Than Its AI Hype
Submitted by Chris Markoch. Date Posted: 2/12/2026.
Key Points
- Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud growth is being powered less by AI hype and more by steady enterprise migrations of legacy SQL and on-premise workloads to Azure.
- Multi-year cloud modernization deals deliver high-margin, recurring revenue and help sustain Microsoft’s $400B RPO backlog.
- While AI infrastructure spending is pressuring near-term margins, the migration-driven revenue base provides stability and a foundation for future AI adoption.
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The start of 2026 hasn't been kind to Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Despite delivering strong Q2 FY2026 results, the stock is down more than 16% year-to-date (YTD).
Microsoft beat on both the top and bottom lines, with the company's cloud computing revenue topping $50 billion. But the market had largely priced MSFT for perfection, which focused attention on a slight deceleration in cloud growth.
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Investors are also concerned about how much Microsoft—like other Magnificent Seven firms—is spending on AI infrastructure CapEx. Those concerns aren't misplaced: AI infrastructure spending can compress margins and free cash flow even when revenue growth is in the high-30% range. It's often not a problem until it becomes one.
But here's the angle investors may be missing: beneath the hype about an AI bubble, Microsoft's channel partners keep returning to a steady theme—traditional SQL Server migrations and legacy infrastructure shifts to Azure.
These aren't glamorous revenue drivers, but they are the steady engine keeping Intelligent Cloud humming.
AI Beat the Numbers, But Guidance Spooked the Street
So what did the earnings report actually say? Microsoft Cloud revenue grew about 26% year-over-year to roughly $50 billion. Azure was up 39% by itself. That remains elite performance, though it is down from prior peaks once you strip out AI-capacity effects.
CapEx surged for AI data-center builds, squeezing margins and free cash flow visibility and prompting management to give conservative near-term guidance for Azure acceleration.
Traders punished the stock because the headline didn't scream "AI infinity." But channel partners tell a different story. Enterprises are steadily moving SQL-heavy workloads (for example, SAP, Dynamics, Oracle apps) from on-premises environments to Azure for cost savings, easier security patching, and basic modernization.
That trend isn't slowing; it's the unglamorous base case powering bookings and remaining performance obligations (RPO).
The SQL Server Flywheel Nobody's Hyping
To see what this looks like for Microsoft, consider a Fortune 500 company with a sprawling SQL Server estate. They're not chasing artificial general intelligence tomorrow — they're avoiding hardware refresh cycles, patch headaches, and hybrid sprawl. Migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance or Synapse is a multi-year, high-visibility project that often carries gross margins north of 80%.
Channel partners lit up after the earnings release: SQL-driven deals remain the bread-and-butter of the pipeline, often bundling OST, Power BI, and Sentinel to increase stickiness. These aren't AI moonshots; they're predictable, recurring revenues from customers already deep in the Microsoft stack.
Contrast that with episodic AI GPU ramps—lumpy CapEx, revenue timing lags, and budget scrutiny. Migrations, by contrast, are steady, feeding RPO backlogs and enabling cross-sell ramps.
AI as Turbocharger, Not the Whole Engine
This perspective underscores Microsoft as a sum-of-its-parts company within the broader technology sector. Yet investors are pricing MSFT as if it were NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)—all AI, all the time.
But AI workloads will layer on top of the migration base Microsoft has already locked down. By moving their SQL estates to Azure, customers are primed for Synapse analytics, Fabric data pools, and Copilot agents running on the same infrastructure. It's the same customers and largely the same total cost of ownership, just with denser compute.
This mix matters when valuing MSFT. If Microsoft's story were solely about AI, concerns over CapEx digestion would carry more weight.
However, Microsoft reported $625 billion in RPO—the value of contracted future revenue yet to be recognized—as of its January earnings report. Much of that is tied to migrations and supports resilient, high-margin SaaS built atop the cloud layer. Even if the company pauses AI spend, the SQL flywheel and Copilot seats (15M+ paid) keep earnings flowing much like an annuity.
Why This Redefines the Bull Case
Forget "AI or bust." Microsoft's valuation multiple is supported because roughly 70% of Intelligent Cloud growth traces back to boring migrations—high-visibility, low-drama projects with AI serving mainly as an accelerant. The post-earnings dip prices in near-term Azure hiccups, but it overlooks how this base cushions digestion quarters and funds the AI bridge.
For patient investors, it's a textbook setup: headline risk creates an entry point while fundamentals quietly compound. Watch channel deal flow and RPO mix next quarter—they'll indicate whether the old-school engine is still revving while AI catches its breath.
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