[BRIEFING.COM] - Star Bulk Carriers (SBLK) is a new addition to our YIELD Leaders rankings this week. Star Bulk is one of the world's largest dry bulk shipping companies, transporting commodities such as iron ore, coal, grain, bauxite, and fertilizers around the globe. Shipping stocks are often overlooked because of their cyclical nature, but Star Bulk stands out thanks to its disciplined capital allocation, modern fleet, and commitment to returning excess cash to shareholders. While freight markets can fluctuate significantly, the company has maintained a conservative balance sheet and has demonstrated an ability to generate meaningful free cash flow across the cycle. One of the more attractive aspects of the Star Bulk story is management's focus on shareholder returns while positioning the fleet for long-term competitiveness. The company has invested in fuel-saving upgrades and environmental technologies that should help lower operating costs and comply with increasingly stringent emissions regulations. Meanwhile, dry bulk fundamentals remain constructive over the long run as fleet growth is expected to stay relatively restrained due to elevated newbuild costs and tighter environmental standards. If demand from China stabilizes and global infrastructure and commodity shipments improve, Star Bulk could be well positioned to benefit from higher charter rates. Compared with many shipping peers that prioritize fleet expansion, Star Bulk has remained disciplined in balancing investment opportunities with capital returns. Star Bulk joins our YIELD Leaders rankings thanks to its attractive combination of a 3.8% dividend yield and 5.3% buyback yield, resulting in a 9.1% total shareholder yield. Shipping stocks are rarely smooth performers, making risk management especially important, but for investors seeking income combined with capital returns, Star Bulk offers a compelling setup. As always, a stop loss limit in the 15-20% is a good idea.
- Additions: BG, C, COP, CVX, MTCH, SBLK, XOM
- Deletions: BBWI, BDX, CF, EOG, KNTK, PAGP, WEN
To address feedback regarding the YIELD list's rate of turnover: much of the week-to-week turnover in the Yield Leaders list can be attributed to two factors: 1) the earnings season-related refresh of dividend and share repurchase data, and 2) stocks whose RS ranks are oscillating just above or below the "Relative Strength > 50" requirement.
Yield Leaders is designed for investors who are looking for a combination of dividend income and capital appreciation. Published every Friday, our weekly rankings are derived from a proprietary screen that heavily weights a metric called Shareholder Yield. While not very well-known, this metric allows investors to screen for companies that not only offer attractive dividend payments, but also offer the potential for capital appreciation that is inherent in large, active buyback programs.
For those who aren't familiar with it, Shareholder Yield is calculated as the sum of the annualized dividend yield plus the percentage of shares outstanding that the company has bought back over the past 12 months. For example, if Company XYZ has an annual dividend yield of 3%, and bought back 4% of its shares outstanding over the past 12 months, this equates to a Shareholder Yield of 7% (3% + 4% = 7%). Essentially, this ratio allows investors to quantify and screen for something that has always been very subjective: managements that are "shareholder-friendly." As such, screening for Shareholder Yield provides a much more targeted list of companies that are aggressively returning cash to their shareholders than you would get by looking at dividend yield alone.
In addition to the yield aspect, the "leaders" part of the title refers to the second component of the system: we require that stocks on our rankings show above-average 6-month Relative Strength, which ensures that our list is populated with high-yielding stocks that are also undergoing a healthy level of accumulation. There are no growth, profitability, or valuation requirements.
To sum up, the companies on our list will feature management teams that are decidedly shareholder-friendly, as evidenced by attractive dividend payouts and/or active share buyback programs. While the system doesn't have any valuation criteria, readers will find that these companies will often feature reasonable valuations as well.
The following table contains a list of stocks that we believe should be particularly attractive to yield investors who are also looking for capital appreciation. Yield Leader components are derived from a quantitative screen that relies on Shareholder Yield, 6-month Relative Strength, and various other secondary criteria. The rankings are based on Shareholder Yield Rank, in descending order. There are no growth, profitability, or valuation criteria applied to this list. As with any quantitative screen, we encourage readers to further investigate any metric that appears to be unusually high (for example, a Shareholder Yield of 20+%), since it could be inflated by a large one-time event that can't reasonably be extrapolated into the future.
| Yield Leaders: July 24, 2026 |
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Mkt Cap |
RS |
Sh. Yield |
Div |
Buyback |
Shareholder |
| Rank |
Name |
Ticker |
Price |
Sector |
(bln) |
Rank |
Rank |
Yield |
Yield |
Yield |
| 1 |
Pitney Bowes |
PBI |
$17.90 |
Packaged Software |
$2.4 |
94 |
99 |
2.2% |
25.8% |
28.1% |
| 2 |
Omnicom |
OMC |
$79.94 |
Advertising Services |
$22.2 |
59 |
98 |
4.1% |
18.7% |
22.8% |
| 3 |
Corebridge Financial |
CRBG |
$31.15 |
Life/Health Insurance |
$13.7 |
79 |
98 |
3.2% |
17.7% |
20.9% |
| 4 |
Harley-Davidson |
HOG |
$26.14 |
Motor Vehicles |
$2.8 |
84 |
97 |
2.8% |
13.4% |
16.2% |
| 5 |
Nomad Foods |
NOMD |
$11.71 |
Food: Specialty/Candy |
$1.6 |
71 |
96 |
5.8% |
9.0% |
14.8% |
| 6 |
MGIC Investment |
MTG |
$29.56 |
Property/Casualty Insurance |
$6.1 |
73 |
96 |
2.3% |
11.7% |
14.1% |
| 7 |
M&T Bank |
MTB |
$249.20 |
Regional Banks |
$35.6 |
79 |
95 |
2.4% |
10.6% |
13.0% |
| 8 |
SLM Corp |
SLM |
$23.78 |
Finance/Rental/Leasing |
$4.6 |
57 |
94 |
2.2% |
10.7% |
12.8% |
| 9 |
Energizer |
ENR |
$21.00 |
Household/Personal Care |
$1.4 |
65 |
93 |
5.8% |
5.9% |
11.7% |
| 10 |
Citigroup |
C |
$132.32 |
Major Banks |
$226.2 |
65 |
93 |
2.0% |
9.6% |
11.6% |
| 11 |
Unum Group |
UNM |
$86.62 |
Multi-Line Insurance |
$13.8 |
68 |
93 |
2.3% |
9.0% |
11.3% |
| 12 |
AIG |
AIG |
$78.57 |
Multi-Line Insurance |
$41.4 |
55 |
93 |
2.6% |
8.7% |
11.3% |
| 13 |
First Interstate |
FIBK |
$38.42 |
Regional Banks |
$3.7 |
66 |
92 |
4.9% |
5.8% |
10.7% |
| 14 |
OneMain | OMF |
$59.42 |
Finance/Rental/Leasing |
$6.8 |
58 |
91 |
7.1% |
3.4% |
10.6% |
| 15 |
Match Group |
MTCH |
$38.26 |
Internet Software/Services |
$8.7 |
77 |
91 |
2.1% |
8.3% |
10.3% |
| 16 |
H&R Block |
HRB |
$40.93 |
Other Consumer Services |
$5.1 |
86 |
91 |
4.2% |
6.1% |
10.3% |
| 17 |
Banc of California |
BANC |
$21.56 |
Regional Banks |
$3.3 |
78 |
90 |
2.2% |
7.8% |
10.1% |
| 18 |
Hess Midstream |
HESM |
$40.89 |
Integrated Oil |
$8.3 |
65 |
90 |
7.7% |
2.4% |
10.1% |
| 19 |
Columbia Banking |
COLB |
$31.44 |
Regional Banks |
$9.3 |
63 |
90 |
4.6% |
5.1% |
9.7% |
| 20 |
First Horizon |
FHN |
$25.58 |
Regional Banks |
$12.1 |
61 |
89 |
2.7% |
6.9% |
9.6% |
| 21 |
Truist Financial |
TFC |
$51.65 |
Regional Banks |
$63.8 |
59 |
89 |
4.1% |
5.5% |
9.5% |
| 22 |
HP Inc. |
HPQ |
$25.85 |
IT Services |
$22.4 |
90 |
89 |
4.9% |
4.5% |
9.4% |
| 23 |
Regions Financial |
RF |
$30.79 |
Major Banks |
$26.2 |
69 |
88 |
3.9% |
5.3% |
9.2% |
| 24 |
Star Bulk Carriers |
SBLK |
$28.25 |
Marine Shipping |
$3.1 |
80 |
88 |
3.8% |
5.3% |
9.1% |
| 25 |
Radian Group |
RDN |
$38.57 |
Specialty Insurance |
$5.1 |
73 |
88 |
2.7% |
6.4% |
9.1% |
| 26 |
Wells Fargo |
WFC |
$86.41 |
Major Banks |
$263.8 |
60 |
87 |
2.1% |
6.9% |
9.0% |
| 27 |
Owens Corning |
OC |
$142.21 |
Containers/Packaging |
$11.2 |
83 |
86 |
2.3% |
6.4% |
8.6% |
| 28 |
First Bancorp |
FBP |
$28.90 |
Regional Banks |
$4.5 |
90 |
85 |
2.8% |
5.7% |
8.4% |
| 29 |
MPLX LP |
MPLX |
$58.85 |
Oil & Gas Pipelines |
$58.4 |
59 |
85 |
7.5% |
0.7% |
8.1% |
| 30 |
T. Rowe Price |
TROW |
$116.57 |
Investment Managers |
$24.6 |
83 |
84 |
4.5% |
3.5% |
8.0% |
| 31 |
SFL Corp |
SFL |
$11.97 |
Marine Shipping |
$1.7 |
74 |
84 |
7.4% |
0.6% |
8.0% |
| 32 |
Bank OZK |
OZK |
$50.37 |
Regional Banks |
$5.7 |
59 |
84 |
3.7% |
4.2% |
8.0% |
| 33 |
Principal Financial |
PFG |
$108.96 |
Investment Managers |
$23.2 |
72 |
83 |
3.1% |
4.7% |
7.8% |
| 34 |
Prudential Financial |
PRU |
$119.14 |
Life/Health Insurance |
$40.9 |
83 |
83 |
4.8% |
3.0% |
7.7% |
| 35 |
Chevron |
CVX |
$194.64 |
Integrated Oil |
$387.2 |
60 |
82 |
3.7% |
3.9% |
7.6% |
| 36 |
Macy's |
M |
$23.31 |
Department Stores |
$6.1 |
78 |
82 |
3.3% |
4.3% |
7.6% |
| 37 |
Robert Half |
RHI |
$36.19 |
Personnel Services |
$3.9 |
93 |
82 |
6.2% |
1.3% |
7.5% |
| 38 |
Bunge Global |
BG |
$122.01 |
Agricultural Commodities |
$23.7 |
51 |
81 |
2.4% |
5.0% |
7.4% |
| 39 |
First Hawaiian |
FHB |
$28.70 |
Regional Banks |
$3.5 |
66 |
81 |
3.6% |
3.6% |
7.2% |
| 40 |
Kraft Heinz |
KHC |
$25.55 |
Food: Major Diversified |
$30.1 |
69 |
80 |
6.3% |
0.7% |
7.0% |
| 41 |
Diamondback Energy |
FANG |
$205.50 |
Oil & Gas Production |
$57.8 |
73 |
79 |
2.1% |
4.7% |
6.9% |
| 42 |
Altria Group |
MO |
$73.01 |
Tobacco |
$120.4 |
65 |
79 |
5.9% |
1.0% |
6.9% |
| 43 |
Plains All American |
PAA |
$24.78 |
Oil & Gas Pipelines |
$17.4 |
80 |
79 |
6.8% |
0.1% |
6.8% |
| 44 |
MetLife |
MET |
$93.71 |
Multi-Line Insurance |
$59.5 |
87 |
79 |
2.6% |
4.2% |
6.8% |
| 45 |
Franklin Resources |
BEN |
$32.60 |
Investment Managers |
$16.8 |
80 |
78 |
4.1% |
2.7% |
6.8% |
| 46 |
HF Sinclair |
DINO |
$89.06 |
Oil Refining/Marketing |
$16.1 |
97 |
78 |
2.2% |
4.5% |
6.7% |
| 47 |
Prosperity Bancshares |
PB |
$73.47 |
Regional Banks |
$8.7 |
61 |
77 |
3.3% |
3.3% |
6.6% |
| 48 |
ExxonMobil |
XOM |
$156.48 |
Integrated Oil |
$650.2 |
60 |
77 |
2.6% |
4.0% |
6.6% |
| 49 |
ConocoPhillips |
COP |
$120.06 |
Oil & Gas Production |
$146.4 |
57 |
76 |
2.8% |
3.8% |
6.6% |
| 50 |
Wabash National |
WNC |
$13.54 |
Trucks/Construction |
$0.5 |
97 |
76 |
2.4% |
4.1% |
6.6% |
Data source: FactSet
--Column originally published on July 24, 2026, by Robert Reid, Lead Analyst - Briefing.com |
