Want Decades of Passive Income? 3 Stocks to Buy Now and Hold Forever

There are no guarantees on Wall Street, especially when it comes to dividends. The board of directors of each company decides on the dividend in private. But income investors can glean some information from past dividend decisions, which is the only information available. Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), Becton, Dickinson (NYSE: BDX), and Universal Health Realty Trust (NYSE: UHT) all have dividend records that make them worth examining today if you want to generate decades of passive income.There are key numbers when it comes to dividend streaks. The first is 10 years. The next is 25 years. And the really big one is 50 years. Medical device maker Medtronic's dividend streak is two years short of that last goal. You don't build a record like that by accident. It shows that there's a strong business model that is executed well in good markets and bad ones. And, just as important, it signals that the company places a priority on returning value to investors via a progressive dividend.Right now Medtronic's dividend yield is 3.2%. That happens to be near the high end of the historical yield range. There are reasons for the lofty yield, including a slowdown in growth and a stretch of time where new innovation was lacking. But both of those factors are being addressed, with management streamlining the business to focus on its most profitable segments. On the new product front, meanwhile, the company's R&D efforts are finally starting to come to fruition as new technologies make their way to market.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool