Top Wall Street analysts are bullish on these 3 dividend stocks for passive income

The uncertainty in the Middle East and concerns about the durability of the artificial intelligence boom and high spending continue to weigh on investor sentiment. Investors can consider strengthening their portfolios by adding dividend stocks.

Tracking top Wall Street analysts can help investors shortlist attractive dividend stocks, as these experts provide useful insights after thorough analysis of a company's financials and growth prospects. Here are three dividend-paying stocks that are highlighted by Wall Street's top pros, as tracked by TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Expand Energy This week's first dividend pick is natural gas producer Expand Energy, which recently announced the $1.25 billion acquisition of Twin Eagle Holdings, a private asset-backed natural gas marketing and optimization business. The deal is expected to accelerate EXE's marketing and commercial goals. Meanwhile, Expand Energy impressed investors with solid second-quarter results. It repurchased shares worth $530 million in Q2 2026 and announced an additional $1 billion of buyback authorization. Expand declared a dividend of nearly 58 cents per share, payable on Sept. 3. At an annualized dividend per share of $2.30, EXE stock offers a dividend yield of 2.5%.

Following the Q2 print, Wolfe Research analyst Doug Leggate reiterated a buy rating on EXE stock and raised his price target to $114 from $110. The five-star analyst noted that Expand delivered market-beating adjusted earnings per share and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, driven by better gas realizations and lower gathering, processing, and transportation expenses.

"Solid 2Q26 with in-line guidance keeps our focus on what it can control, walking the line between options to return value to s/holders," said Leggate. As Expand Energy continues to weigh options to enhance shareholder returns, Leggate believes that net debt reduction is the best choice. He highlighted that the company repaid $1.3 billion of gross debt in April, supported by seasonally higher cash flows in the first quarter. EXE ended Q2 2026 with $3.1 billion in net debt. Leggate views buybacks as the second-best option and mergers and acquisitions as the third, with the Twin Eagle deal expected to lower Expand's breakeven by about 7 cents from about $2.80/Mcf.

Leggate ranks No. 807 among more than 12,400 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 57% of the time, delivering an average return of 10.1%. See Expand Energy Stock Buybacks on TipRanks.

SM Energy Moving on to SM Energy, an operator of oil and gas assets across four leading U.S. shale basins: the Permian Basin, DJ Basin, South Texas, and Uinta Basin. SM offers a quarterly dividend of 22 cents per share, or an annualized dividend of 88 cents per share, representing a yield of about 2.7%.

Following a preliminary update on Q2 metrics, Roth analyst Leo Mariani reaffirmed a buy rating on SM Energy stock and raised his price target to $34 from $32. The analyst cited higher oil prices and his optimism about a strong second-quarter report as the reasons for the upgraded price target. Commenting on the key insights from the Q2 preliminary update, Mariani noted strong oil and gas price realizations in the quarter. However, the update reflected a slightly larger cash hedging loss of $220 million from derivatives, compared to Roth's estimate of about $211 million. Meanwhile, the five-star analyst raised his cash flow per share estimate by 3%, citing a strong Q2 2026 pricing update. Mariani added that he expects SM Energy to report strong Q2 2026 results on Aug...