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15 Highest Yielding Food Stocks Now | Dividend Yields Up To 6.3%


Published on June 10th, 2025 by Bob Ciura

Food stocks are appealing to income investors for a number of reasons.

As the saying goes, everyone has to eat. This means the major food producers and distributors see steady demand, even during economic downturns.

In turn, food stocks have the unique ability to continue paying–and even raising–their dividends each year, even through recessions.

In addition, many food stocks have high dividend yields well above the S&P 500 average.

Food stocks are part of the broader consumer staples sector. The consumer staples sector is home to some of the most well-known dividend growth stocks in the world.

In fact, consumer staples stocks are the largest individual sector within the Dividend Aristocrats, a select group of 69 stocks in the S&P 500 Index with 25+ consecutive years of dividend increases.

You can download a copy of the Dividend Aristocrats list by clicking on the link below:

 

Click here to instantly download your free spreadsheet of all 69 Dividend Aristocrats now, along with important investing metrics.

Disclaimer: Sure Dividend is not affiliated with S&P Global in any way. S&P Global owns and maintains The Dividend Aristocrats Index. The information in this article and downloadable spreadsheet is based on Sure Dividend’s own review, summary, and analysis of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) and other sources, and is meant to help individual investors better understand this ETF and the index upon which it is based. None of the information in this article or spreadsheet is official data from S&P Global. Consult S&P Global for official information.

Within the consumer staples sector, food stocks are known for particularly high dividend yields, stable payouts even through recessions, and consistent dividend growth.

This article lists the 15 highest-yielding food stocks now, in the Sure Analysis Research Database. The 15 stocks are listed by dividend yield, from lowest to highest.

Table of Contents

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #15: Lamb Weston Holdings (LW)

Lamb Weston is one of the dominant players in the frozen potato market, with an estimated 40% market share in North America.

It primarily sells french fries, tater tots, hash browns and other potato-based items to restaurants and fast food chains. The company relies on a few key customers to drive sales, with McDonald’s (MCD) in particular accounting for about 13% of Lamb Weston’s total revenues.

Weston announced its fiscal Q3 2025 earnings report on April 3rd, 2025. Lamb Weston’s earnings of $1.10 beat expectations but slid from the $1.20 reported in the same quarter of the prior year. Revenues of $1.52 billion met expectations and grew 4.3% year-over-year.

While earnings continue to decline from prior levels, this quarter was a significant improvement as margins have stabilized and customer demand has started to rebound.

Lamb Weston has a fair bit of debt, and its BB+ credit rating from S&P Global puts it slightly below investment grade. A steep economic downturn could stress the company’s dividend, that said the company’s operations held up alright during the pandemic and the relatively low payout ratio leaves a significant margin of safety today.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on LW (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #14: Sysco Corp. (SYY)

Sysco Corporation is the largest wholesale food distributor in the United States. The company serves 600,000 locations with food delivery, including restaurants, hospitals, schools, hotels, and other facilities.

Source: Investor Presentation

On April 29th, 2025, Sysco reported third-quarter results for Fiscal Year (FY)2025. The company reported sales of $19.6 billion, up 1.1% from Q3 2024, despite a 2.0% decline in U.S. Foodservice volume. Gross profit fell 0.8% to $3.6 billion, with gross margin dropping 35 basis points to 18.3% due to lower volumes and product mix.

Operating income decreased 5.7% to $681 million, and adjusted operating income fell 3.3% to $773 million, driven by higher operating expenses from business investments and supply chain costs. Net earnings dropped 5.6% to $401 million, with adjusted net earnings down 2.9% to $469 million.

Diluted EPS was $0.82, down 3.5%, while adjusted EPS remained flat at $0.96. Sysco revised its FY25 guidance, projecting 3% sales growth and at least 1% adjusted EPS growth.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SYY (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #13: Kellanova Co. (K)

Kellanova was founded in 1906, the beginning of what would become a behemoth in the food processing industry.

Kellanova has always focused on breakfast, but in recent years the company has also expanded to become an enormous snack producer. The company now derives more than half of its total revenue from non-breakfast categories.

It produces about $13 billion in annual revenue.

Kellanova posted first quarter earnings on May 1st, 2025, and results were somewhat weak again, missing estimates for revenue and profits. Kellanova is suffering from weak demand and forex translation losses once again.

Adjusted earnings-per-share came to 90 cents, while revenue was off 3.8% year-over-year to $3.08 billion. Sales in North America fell 4% on lower volumes, primarily from further softening of snack and frozen category demand. In Europe, sales were off 3% from forex losses and volume declines.

Latin America sales plummeted 15% on significant forex losses, as well as volume declines. Profit margins were also pressured on higher costs and adverse sales mix, as earnings missed estimates by more than 10% during the quarter.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on K (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #12: Mondelez International (MDLZ)

Mondelez was formed in 1989 as a result of the merger between Philip Morris and General Foods Corp. It focuses on its core categories of chocolate, biscuits, and baked snacks. The global food processor manufactures and distributes snacks in more than 150 countries, generating annual revenues of ~$36 billion.

Its 2024 revenues came from 37% in Europe, 30% in North America, 20% in Asia, Middle East, & Africa, and 14% in Latin America.

Mondelez reported its Q1 2025 results on 4/29/2025. For the quarter, its organic net revenue growth was 3.1%, driven by higher prices: the underlying volume/mix was -3.5% and pricing was 6.6%.

Net revenue rose 0.2% year-over-year to $9.3 billion. Organic net revenue growth of 8.9% in Europe was the strongest, followed by 3.9% in Latin America. In Asia, Middle East, & Africa organic net revenue growth was 1.8%, while it was negative at -3.6% in North America.

The adjusted gross profit dropped 14% to $3.1 billion, along with an adjusted gross profit margin contraction of  5.8% to 33.4%.

Mondelez maintained its guidance for 2025, as follows: Organic net revenue growth of ~5% and adjusted EPS to decline by ~10% on a constant currency basis due to “unprecedented cocoa cost inflation”. It also continues to anticipate to generate free cash flow of more than $3 billion.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on MDLZ (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #11: Hershey Company (HSY)

The Hershey Company, founded in 1894, is a chocolate and sugar confectionary products manufacturer that sells major brands such as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kisses, Cadbury, Ice Breakers, Kit Kat, Almond Joy, Jolly Rancher, Twizzlers, Heath, and Milk Duds.

Hershey primarily operates in North America but has international operations as well. The company is headquartered in Hershey, PA.

On May 1st, 2025, Hershey reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The North America Confectionary segment (82% of sales) saw its sales decrease -15% over the prior year’s quarter due to abnormally high inventories in the second quarter of 2024.

Earnings-per-share fell -32%, from $3.07 to $2.09, but beat the analysts’ consensus by $0.16, primarily thanks to an effective hedging strategy, which partly offset the effect of exceptionally high cocoa prices.

Hershey is facing an extremely strong headwind from sky-high cocoa prices, which squeeze the profit margins of the chocolate maker. The company reiterated its weak guidance for 2025, expecting a ~35% decline in earnings-per-share.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on HSY (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #10: Tyson Foods (TSN)

Tyson Foods, founded in 1935, is one the world’s largest processors and marketers of chicken, beef, and pork products. Tyson Foods sells products to leading grocery chains, food franchises, and military commissaries in over 100 countries.

Well-known brands include Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park and State Fair. The generated $53.3 billion in revenue last year.

On May 5th, 2025, Tyson Foods released its Fiscal Q2 results for the period ending March 29th, 2025. For the quarter, sales came in at $13.1 billion, flat compared to Q2 2024. Chicken volumes rose by 3.0%, while beef, pork, and prepared foods volumes declined by 1.4%, 3.8%, and 2.6%, respectively.

Average selling prices increased in beef (8.2%), pork (4.3%), and prepared foods (2.3%), but fell in chicken (-1.1%) and international/other (-0.9%).

Adjusted operating income was $515 million, up 27% compared to last year, while adjusted EPS stood at $0.92, marking a 48% year-over-year increase.

This performance reflected strong execution across the business, particularly in the chicken and prepared foods segments, and marked Tyson’s fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement in top and adjusted bottom-line results.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on TSN (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #9: Hormel Foods (HRL)

Hormel Foods was founded back in 1891 in Minnesota. Since that time, the company has grown into a juggernaut in the food products industry with nearly $10 billion in annual revenue.

Hormel has kept with its core competency as a processor of meat products for well over a hundred years, but has also grown into other business lines through acquisitions.

Hormel has a large portfolio of category-leading brands. Just a few of its top brands include include Skippy, SPAM, Applegate, Justin’s, and more than 30 others.

The company has increased its dividend for 59 consecutive years.

Source: Investor Presentation

Hormel posted second quarter earnings on May 29th, 2025, and results were largely in line with expectations. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to 35 cents, which was a penny ahead of estimates.

Revenue was up fractionally to $2.9 billion, meeting expectations. The company saw a 7% decline in volume and flat sales in both retail and foodservice. Pricing increases helped to offset that.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on HRL (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #8: J.M. Smucker Co. (SJM)

The J.M. Smucker company has grown into an international powerhouse of packaged food and beverage products including iconic brands like Smucker’s, Jif and Folgers, along with various pet food brands.

The company generated $8 billion in sales in each of the last two fiscal years.

Source: Investor Presentation

In late February, Smucker’s reported (2/27/25) results for the third quarter of fiscal 2025, which ended on January 31st, 2025. Currency-neutral, organic sales dipped -1% over the prior year’s quarter, mostly due to supply chain disruptions.

Adjusted earnings-per-share grew 5%, from $2.49 to $2.61, and exceeded the analysts’ estimates by $0.24. Thanks to better-than-expected performance, Smucker’s slightly improved its guidance for earnings-per-share in fiscal 2025.

It lowered its guidance for growth of sales from 7.5%-8.5% to 7.25% but raised its guidance for adjusted earnings-per share from $9.70-$10.10 to $9.85-$10.15.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SJM (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #7: WK Kellogg Co. (KLG)

WK Kellogg Co. specializes in offering a range of ready-to-eat cereal products, featuring popular brands such as Frosted Flakes, Special K, Froot Loops, Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Kashi.

On May 6th, 2025, WK Kellogg posted its Q1 results for the period ending March 29th, 2025. This was WK Kellogg’s 7th quarter as a standalone company following its separation from Kellanova. For the quarter, the company’s net sales came in at $663 million, down 6.2% from the prior-year period.

While the price/mix was up 3.0%, volume was down 8.6%. In other words, price elasticity and reduced retailer inventory were the main drivers of the decline in revenues.

Despite lower revenues, first-quarter adjusted EBITDA came in at $72 million, reflecting a 4.0% year-over-year decrease. Notably, the company’s adjusted EBITDA margin rose by 20 basis points to 10.8%, due to improved gross margin and disciplined cost management.

Net income was $18 million, down from $33 million last year. On a per-share basis, the net income was $0.20, compared to net income per share of $0.38 reported in the same period last year.

Management lowered its fiscal 2025 organic net sales projections to a range of -2.0% to -3.0%. Adjusted EBITDA growth is now projected to be flat to -2.0%.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on KLG (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #6: PepsiCo Inc. (PEP)

PepsiCo is a global food and beverage company. Its products include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Frito-Lay chips, Gatorade, Tropicana orange juice and Quaker foods.

Its business is split roughly 60-40 in terms of food and beverage revenue. It is also balanced geographically between the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Source: Investor Presentation

On April 24th, 2025, PepsiCo reported first quarter earnings results for the period ending March 31st, 2025. For the quarter, revenue fell 1.8% to $17.9 billion, but this beat expectations by $190 million.

Adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.48 compared unfavorably to $1.61 the prior year and was $0.01 below estimates. Currency exchange reduced revenue by 3% and earnings-per-share by 4%.

Organic sales grew 1% for the first quarter. For the period, volume for beverages was flat while food decreased 3%. PepsiCo Beverages North America’s revenue grew 1% for the period even as volume was down 3%.

Revenue for Frito Lay North America declined 2% and volume declined 1%.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on PEP (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #5: General Mills (GIS)

General Mills is a packaged food giant, with more than 100 brands and operations in more than 100 countries. General Mills has not cut its dividend for 125 consecutive years.

In mid-March, General Mills reported (3/19/25) results for Q3-2025. Net sales and organic sales fell -5% each over the prior year’s quarter, primarily due to retailer inventory reductions. It was the second-worst decline in the last five years.

Gross margin expanded from 33.5% to 33.9%, as cost savings offset input inflation. Adjusted earnings-per-share decreased -15%, from $1.18 to $1.00, but exceeded the analysts’ consensus by $0.04.

General Mills is facing tough comparisons, as the pandemic has subsided. It generates 85% of its sales from at-home food demand. It is also facing high cost inflation, which is likely to persist for a while. In addition, it is currently investing in its pet business to reinvigorate growth, at the expense of short-term earnings.

As a result, the company lowered its already cautious guidance for fiscal 2025. It expects a 1.5%-2% decline in organic sales and a 7%-8% decline in earnings per-share (vs. a 2% decline in previous guidance).

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on GIS (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #4: Campbell Soup (CPB)

Campbell Soup Company is a multinational food company headquartered in Camden, N.J. The company manufactures and markets branded convenience food products, such as soups, simple meals, beverages, snacks, and packaged fresh foods.

The company’s portfolio focuses on two specific businesses: Campbell Snacks, and Campbell Meals and Beverages. Campbell generated annual sales of $9.6 billion in fiscal 2024.

On March 12, 2024, Campbell closed on its acquisition of Sovos Brands (SOVO) for $23 per share in cash, which represented a total enterprise value of $2.7 billion, and was funded by issuing new debt. Sovos is a leader in high growth premium Italian sauces, and owns the market-leading Rao’s brand.

Campbell Soup reported second quarter FY 2025 results on March 5th, 2025. Net sales for the quarter improved by 9% year-over-year to $2.7 billion. This increase was mostly a result of the Sovos Brands acquisition. Adjusted EPS was 8% lower year-over-year at $0.74 for the quarter, which beat expectations by two cents.

The company repurchased $56 million worth of shares in H1. There remains $301 million remaining under the current $500 million share repurchase program, which is in addition to the existing $205 million remaining on its anti-dilutive share repurchase program.

Leadership updated its full-year fiscal 2025 guidance. Management now estimates that in fiscal 2025, Campbell’s adjusted earnings per share will be down 1% to 4%.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CPB (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #3: Flowers Foods (FLO)

Flowers Foods opened its first bakery in 1919 and has since become one of the largest producers of packaged bakery foods in the United States, operating 46 bakeries in 18 states.

Well-known brands include Wonder Bread, Home Pride, Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Tastykake and Canyon Bakehouse.

The company operates in two segments: Direct Store-Delivery (DSD) and Warehouse Delivery, with ~85% of the company’s product being delivered directly to stores.

Fresh breads, buns, rolls, and tortillas make up about a three-fourths of the business, with sales channels split between Supermarkets, Mass Merchandisers, Foodservice, and Convenience Store.

On May 16th, 2025, Flowers Foods reported first quarter results for the period ending April 19th, 2025. For the quarter, revenue decreased 1.4% to $1.55 billion and was $50 million less than expected. Adjusted earnings-per-share of $0.35 compared to $0.38 last year and was $0.02 below estimates.

For the quarter, Branded Retail sales decreased 0.4% to $1.011 million as pricing was lower by 0.9% and volume was down 1.9%. Simple Mills added 2.4%. Other sales fell 3.3% to $543 million as a 0.4% benefit from pricing and mix was offset by a 3.7% decline in volume.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on FLO (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Highest-Yielding Food Stock #2: Kraft-Heinz Co. (KHC)

Kraft-Heinz is a processed food and beverages company which owns a product portfolio that includes food products such as condiments, sauces, cheese & dairy, frozen & chilled meals, and infant diet & nutrition.

When The Kraft-Heinz Company reported its first quarter earnings results, the company reported that its revenues totaled $6.0 billion during the quarter, which was down 6.4% compared to the revenues that Kraft-Heinz generated during the previous year’s period.

This was slightly worse than what the analyst community had expected, as the consensus estimate was missed by $20 million. Kraft-Heinz’ organic sales were down by 4.7%.

Kraft-Heinz generated earnings-per-share of $0.62 during the first quarter, which was above the consensus estimate. Earnings-per-share were down 10% versus the previous year’s quarter, which was a weaker result compared to the previous quarter, when earnings-per-share were up 8% year-over-year.

Kraft-Heinz’ management stated that they see organic net sales declining by around 2.5% in 2025, while management is forecasting earnings-per-share to come in between $2.51 and $2.67 for the current year. This would mean a decline of around 15% versus the previous year.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on KHC (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Highest-Yielding Food Stock #1: Conagra Brands (CAG)

Conagra has well-known brands like Slim Jim, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, Reddi Whip, Birds Eye, Vlasic, Hunt’s, and PAM.

On April 3rd, 2025, Conagra reported third quarter results for the period ending February 25, 2025. For the quarter, net sales declined 6.3% year-over-year to $2.8 billion, the result of a 5.2% reduction of organic net sales, a 0.7% decline due to currency exchange , and a negative impact of -0.4% due to M&A.

Volume declined 3.1%. Adjusted EPS decreased 26% to $0.51, missing analyst estimates by $0.02. At quarter-end, the company had net debt of $8.1 billion, and a net leverage ratio of 3.59X.

Conagra reiterated its fiscal 2025 guidance, expecting organic net sales to decline by -2% compared to FY 2024. Adjusted operating margin is likely to come in at 14.4%, and adjusted EPS is expected to decline from FY 2024 to $2.35.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CAG (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Final Thoughts

High-yield dividend stocks have great appeal to income investors. The S&P 500 Index yields just ~1.2% right now on average, making high yield stocks even more attractive by comparison.

The 15 food stocks in this list have yields at least double the S&P 500 Index average. And, each of these stocks has a demonstrated track record of raising their dividends over the years.

As a result, income investors may find these 15 food stocks attractive.

Further Reading

If you are interested in finding high-quality dividend growth stocks and/or other high-yield securities and income securities, the following Sure Dividend resources will be useful:

High-Yield Individual Security Research

Other Sure Dividend Resources

Thanks for reading this article. Please send any feedback, corrections, or questions to support@suredividend.com.



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