“I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett
Brutal stock market sell-offs can create lucrative opportunities for investors with clear minds and steady hearts. Dividend stocks can be particularly attractive investments in bear markets, as the passive income they produce can help to offset share price declines.
The cash you receive can also make it easier to wait for an eventual rebound — and give you more dry powder to invest when stocks go on sale. To aid your search for these wealth builders, here are two rock-solid dividend stocks for your consideration.
Following a slate of asset sales, AT&T (NYSE: T) is leaner, meaner, and better positioned to deliver dependable dividends to its shareholders than it’s been in decades. Investors are beginning to take notice. The telecom titan is drastically outperforming the broad market S&P 500 index so far in 2025, a trend that’s likely to continue.
CEO John Stankey has refocused AT&T on its core wireless and broadband businesses. The company wisely chose to divest its WarnerMedia and DirecTV assets in recent years. Those sales enabled AT&T to pay down debt and expand its 5G and fiber internet networks. These investments, combined with the popularity of telecom giant’s bundled wireless and internet offerings, are enabling AT&T to compete and win within the massive U.S. telecom industry.
The wireless leader gained 1.7 million postpaid phone customers in 2024. These are people who pay monthly bills and are typically the most profitable clients for telecoms. AT&T also added 1 million fiber customers, marking the seventh straight year that it gained at least 1 million high-speed internet accounts.
AT&T plans to grow its fiber network to over 50 million locations by the end of the decade, up from 28.9 million as of Dec. 31. Management expects this key segment to enjoy robust gains in the coming years, with revenue in the company’s consumer fiber broadband division rising by “mid-teens” percentages in 2025.
All told, AT&T forecasts free cash flow of more than $16 billion in 2025. The company has promised to deliver much of the cash it generates to its shareholders. Over the next three years, AT&T’s investors are set to receive over $20 billion in projected dividend payments. This stalwart stock yields a solid 3.9% today.
Buy shares now, and you’ll likely be buying alongside AT&T. In December, the communications colossus announced plans to repurchase as much as $10 billion worth of its stock by the end of 2026.
