Dividend Investing

In another thread a user here in r/dividends said that you cannot find safe companies yielding more than 3-4%. I countered that by listing the following:

O, WPC, BTI, MO, LYB, KMI, EPD, VZ, ORAN, BNS, TD, REPYY, UVV, VGR, CEIX, ALRP...

And there are more.

I was surprised that in a dividend sub I didn't get more traction. Am I crazy? The user replied:

None of the companies you listed are actually safe. They are all at risk of bankruptcy and you have no way to tell if they are still going strong a few decades from now. LYB, for example, went bankrupt during the 2008 financial crisis.

"None of the companies are actually safe." - Really? These names are that speculative?

"They are all at risk of bankruptcy." - Really? Realty Income, WP Carey, Verizon, Altria, and Canadian banks are all headed for bankruptcy?

"You have no way to tell if they are still going strong a few decades from now." Yes, that's a fair point. However, I would say with one-decade time horizon, all of these are pretty secure except maybe the coal stocks. That does not mean they will all go bankrupt in one decade. It means that you have to watch them and re-evaluate periodically over a longer time horizon, particularly the anti-ESG ones that are in dying industries. Also, you have no way to know if NVDA will be going strong in a few decades, either, so that's not really an issue specific to these stocks.

"LYB, for example, went bankrupt during the 2008 financial crisis." Fair enough, that doesn't mean they're going to make the same mistake and go bankrupt again. According to quick research, they now make 150% more revenue and have just 38% of the debt on their balance sheet (2022 / 2009 comparison). As of Q1 2023 debt to EBIDTA stood at a very healthy 1.7x.

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