3 Dividend Stocks You Can Safely Hold for Decades

One of the worst things dividend investors can have happen to a stock they own is a dividend cut. There's no perfect way to avoid it. However, you can boost your chances by selecting companies that have long histories of increasing their dividends and strong financial conditions. That's exactly what you'll get with Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL), Realty Income (NYSE: O), and Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) right now. Here's why.

Hormel has a roughly 2.7% yield today. That may not seem all that high to dividend investors, but that yield happens to be toward the high end of the company's historical yield range, suggesting the shares are on the sale rack. The dividend backing that yield, meanwhile, has been increased annually for nearly six decades, making Hormel a Dividend King.