Have you ever looked at your portfolio and wondered why some stocks seem to quietly make you richer even when the share price barely moves? That’s the magic of strong shareholder returns – the combination of dividends hitting your account and companies buying back their own shares. Lately I’ve been paying extra attention to this corner of the market because, honestly, growth feels exhausting sometimes. Give me steady, fat checks and a management team that actually likes its own stock.
Wall Street has taken notice too. One of the big banks just put out a fresh screen of large-cap names that are absolutely showering investors with cash. The numbers are eye-opening: across the biggest 1,000 companies, total cash piles actually grew last quarter despite massive spending, and shareholder payouts jumped almost 10% year-over-year. That’s not pocket change – we’re talking almost two trillion dollars returned to owners.
Why Shareholder Returns Matter More Than Ever
In a world obsessed with the next hot growth story, it’s easy to forget that buying back stock and paying dividends is often the ultimate vote of confidence from management. When a company has more cash than it knows what to do with, returning it signals maturity, discipline, and – let’s be real – a belief that the stock is cheap. I’ve always found that far more reassuring than some CEO promising the moon in ten years.
The analysts behind this list went looking for the cream of the crop: companies delivering total shareholder yield above 6%, rock-solid dividend coverage, growing earnings, positive free cash flow growth ahead, and investment-grade credit ratings. In other words, businesses that can keep the party going without taking stupid risks.
Marathon Petroleum – Still One of the Heavyweight Champions
If someone told me five years ago that a refining company would be one of the best income-and-buyback stories on the market, I probably would have laughed. Yet here we are. Marathon Petroleum currently boasts a total shareholder yield approaching 18% – that’s not a typo. Nearly one-fifth of the company’s market cap gets returned to owners every single year between dividends and repurchases.
The dividend yield itself sits around 2.1%, which is respectable but hardly screams excitement on its own. The real firepower comes from aggressive buybacks. Management just raised the quarterly payout by 10% and has been shrinking the share count at a healthy clip. When you combine that with refining margins that have stayed surprisingly strong, you get a stock that’s up more than a third this year while still looking reasonable on valuation.
Returning capital remains a top priority, and we continue to see our shares as an attractive investment.
– Company commentary that basically says “we think our stock is cheap”
Energy gets a bad rap for being cyclical, but the refiners have quietly become cash machines in recent years. Marathon isn’t flashy, but it’s the kind of name that lets you sleep well at night while still collecting serious returns.
HP Inc. – When “Boring” Pays Literally
Remember when everyone declared the PC dead? Turns out people still need computers and printers, especially now that offices are full again and AI is driving hardware upgrades. HP has been one of the most consistent capital-return stories in tech, and right now its total shareholder yield sits around 15% with a straight dividend yield pushing 5%.
Yes, the stock has had a rough 2025 – down more than 25% at one point – which actually makes the yield math work even better for new buyers. Management returned almost two billion dollars last fiscal year and shows no signs of slowing down. The recent workforce reduction announcement got all the headlines, but the underlying message was clear: get lean, push AI-enabled products, keep sending cash to shareholders.
- Dividend yield close to 5% – almost bond-like
- Consistent buybacks even during tough quarters
- Trading at single-digit price-to-earnings in places
- New AI-focused PCs starting to ship in volume
Call me old-fashioned, but a 15% total yield from a company that literally prints money (sorry, had to) feels like the market is handing us a gift right now.
FedEx – The Breakup Value Play in Disguise
Package delivery might not sound sexy, but FedEx is in the middle of what could be one of the more interesting corporate separations in years. The company is spinning off its freight division into a standalone public company by mid-2026, which should unlock value for both pieces. In the meantime, shareholders are collecting a healthy 7% total yield while they wait.
First-quarter results beat expectations handily, and the buyback program chewed through half a billion dollars in just three months. When you have a business throwing off that kind of cash, spinning off a slower-growth unit starts to look genius. Two focused companies are almost always worth more than one confused conglomerate.
The stock has basically gone nowhere this year, which feels like the market hasn’t priced in the sum-of-the-parts upside yet. Patient income investors could get paid nicely to wait.
CVS Health – The Turnaround That Keeps Delivering Surprises
Few comeback stories have been as dramatic as CVS in 2025. The stock is up close to 80% year-to-date after three straight quarters of beating expectations and raising guidance. New leadership came in, slashed costs, shook up management, and – crucially – kept the dividend intact while resuming buybacks. Total shareholder yield sits right around 6.6%, but the momentum feels much stronger than that number suggests.
The health insurance business, which had been the problem child, is finally stabilizing. Combine that with the steady cash flow from thousands of drugstores and you have a classic “fixed the easy stuff, now the hard parts are getting better” situation. When a CEO says he’s “really, really good” about closing the year strong three times in one earnings call, you start to believe the turnaround might actually stick.
This is the third consecutive quarter of beat-and-raise, and the trajectory feels sustainable.
What Ties These Names Together
Look past the different industries and you see the same pattern: mature businesses generating more cash than they need, trading at reasonable (or outright cheap) valuations, and choosing to return that excess capital instead of embarking on questionable empires. In my experience, that combination rarely stays ignored by the market forever.
These aren’t the stocks that make you rich overnight. They’re the ones that compound quietly while the growth darlings grab headlines. And right now, with total yields ranging from 6% to nearly 20%, the math is doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
Sure, nothing is bulletproof. Refining margins can roll over, PC demand can soften again, packages can slow, turnarounds can stall. But every one of these companies has an investment-grade balance sheet and a clear commitment to shareholders. That’s about as close to “sleep-well-at-night money” as the stock market gets these days.
I’m not saying you should back up the truck on any single name here – diversification still matters – but if you’ve been searching for ways to get paid while you wait for the next big move in the market, this corner of the market deserves a serious look. Sometimes the best offense really is a great defense, especially when that defense is writing you fat checks every quarter.
The era of zero interest rates forced companies to issue shares and chase growth at any cost. Now that cash actually has a cost again, the survivors are the ones who figured out how to make it – and give it back. Maybe boring is the new brilliant after all.
