4 Dividend-Paying Stocks with Strong Growth Potential

Markets have gotten choppy over the last few weeks, and many investors have abandoned first-half winners like memory makers and semiconductor fabricators. Big-time IPOs like SpaceX have flopped, and hyperscalers like Oracle have entered prolonged drawdowns. When markets get volatile, and winners turn to losers, many investors turn to the safety of dividend stocks. However, we don’t necessarily need to relinquish growth for the security of income.

Today, we’ll look at four stocks that combine steady dividend increases with earnings growth potential that investors can use to weather volatility storms. Each company here has increased its dividend by at least 10% annually over the last five years, and maintains a Edge Growth Score of at least 80. Targa Resources Inc. 47 Oil prices are at the top of every investor’s mind, so it makes sense to start with Targa Resources Inc.

5 billion in sales over the last 12 months. Being a midstream company means collecting fees, so an investment in TRGP isn’t a bet on crude prices rising or receding, but on sustainable Permian volumes. S. refineries is soaring, and Targa has been turning this extra revenue into profit at an expanding rate.

And long before the outbreak of the Iran war, Targa had been a dividend grower that returned ample capital to shareholders. 9%. The company initiated the payout 5 years ago and has been raising payouts at an annualized rate of 25% since authorization. 75, a year-over-year (YoY) increase of more than 26%.

In other words, Targa has plenty of earnings growth to support future dividend increases. The chart is showing a few wobbly technical signals (including a stiff challenge of the 50-day moving average), but the long-term uptrend remains intact. The Q2 earnings report is due on August 6. Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc.

91 World Cup fever benefited Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS ) more than most retailers, and analysts at JPMorgan Chase and Barclays anticipated this by raising price targets to $270 and $280, respectively. 27 Why the bullish response to an EPS guidance cut? Most of the earnings hit came from acquisition costs, such as M&A, and from inventory clearance sales. These are non-recurring events that shroud areas of true growth: comps grew at both Dick’s and Foot Locker, and Q1 net sales were up 62% YoY.

For Foot Locker, it was the first instance of comp growth since 2024 and total comps settled at 6%. 4% and a 47% payout ratio. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 35% over the last 5 years, Dick’s has consistently increased the amount of earnings it’s returned to shareholders. The company’s Q2 2026 earnings report is scheduled for August 27, and that’s where the World Cup boost is expected to materialize.

Technical indicators like the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) still tilt bearish, but the downward momentum is slowing, and the 50-day moving average remains above the 200-day moving average. East West Bancorp Inc. 62 East West Bancorp (NYSE: EWBC ) can let its Q2 2026 results speak for themselves. 63, a 18% YoY increase.

But the crucial figure is the 19% YoY growth in non-interest-bearing deposits, which now account for 26% of total deposits. A bank growing its interest-free offerings in a high-rate environment can turn much more revenue into profit, and that’s before management raised net interest income guidance to the high end of 9%. 20 per share. The company has grown its dividend by more than 16% annually on average over the last five years, but the payout ratio remains manageable at 28% of cash flow.

The chart also shows the share price at a crucial technical level, which could bode well for new entries. The 50-day moving average has once again proved to be a strong support area, and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is bouncing off 50, a commonly recognized bullish/bearish crossover point. The muted earnings response shows that much of the report’s upside was already priced in, but the uptrend remains strong and is supported by fundamentals. Equinix Inc.

82 Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX ) is at the heart of the data center buildout, providing hyperscalers with interconnection and colocation services. Most of the company’s revenue comes from renting physical buildings to house servers, HVAC systems, and other subsystems. 4% YoY, respectively. Management also gave implicit guidance on its dividend, raising future payouts to a range of 9% to 12% from 8%, in line with earnings growth.

The company has been growing its dividend at a 12% annual clip over the last 5 years, so this is now a forward commitment for another three years of similar dividend payout growth. Shares popped just under 3% following the report, but this could be the catalyst needed to break the stock’s range-bound trading. Support at the 50-day moving average has wavered but holds, and the MACD and RSI are both trending back toward bullish territory.