If you've got money sitting in the bank that you can afford to invest in the stock market today, targeting dividend stocks can be a great move to make right now. Many investors have been putting money into bonds and high-yielding assets which are less risky than stocks. But with interest rates potentially coming down later this year, that could push the pendulum back in the other direction; dividend stocks could soon be hot buys again.

Not only could they possess some underrated upside, but because some of them trade at discounted valuations, you can also generate plenty of recurring-dividend income from them. Three stocks with high-dividend yields of more than 5% that can make for good investments today are Realty Income (NYSE: O), TC Energy (NYSE: TRP), and Western Union (NYSE: WU). If you invest $30,000 across these three stocks, then together, they could generate around $2,000 in annual dividends.

Realty Income is a real estate investment trust (REIT) which gives investors a great mix of stability and dividends. Unfortunately, with risk-averse investors not bullish on REITs in a high-interest rate environment, the stock has struggled -- year to date, shares of Realty Income are down 4%.

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Source Fool.com