3 Top Dividend Stocks to Buy in November

With November just getting under way you may be looking at Wall Street in search of some reliable dividend stocks. You should look at (NYSE: CVX), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), and Realty Income (NYSE: O). They all have attractively high yields and the shortest dividend streak on the list is 30 years long. Here's a quick look at each one.

Chevron's 38-year streak of annual dividend increases is extra impressive when you consider that it operates in the energy sector. Oil and natural gas prices are known for being highly volatile, which, in turn, leads to big swings in the sales and earnings of energy companies. That's just as true of Chevron as it is of any other commodity-driven energy business.

However, Chevron has managed to ride the swings better than most. That's partly because it uses an integrated model, which means it has exposure to the upstream (energy production), the midstream (pipelines), and the downstream (chemicals and refining) segments of the industry. The diversification across the industry helps to soften the peaks and valleys inherent to the business. But, on top of that, Chevron has an incredibly strong balance sheet, with a debt-to-equity ratio of around 0.2. That's low by any standard and allows the company to take on debt during energy downturns so it can continue to support the business and the dividend. When energy prices recover, as they always have historically, leverage is reduced.

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Source Fool.com