Dividends! Get Your Dividends Here!

As I sat down to start my work week, I realized that I didn’t eat a single hot dog over the holiday weekend to celebrate the 250th birthday of America.

Instead, I sat at Otto’s Pub and Brewery in State College, PA, with my gluten free Beef on Weck and birch beer float. I would easily argue that my meal celebrates American culture, but it’s not the gold standard for the holiday.

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates that Americans consume roughly 150 million hot dogs on the Fourth of July alone. And that’s just a slice of the 7 billion hot dogs eaten during the “hot dog season” of Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Now, hot dog preference seems to be as polarizing as what toppings actually belong on them. But the near unlimited options is probably why Americans eat so many.

I’m a fan of Teton Waters Ranch 100% beef hot dogs. But I also won’t say “no” to a Bar-S hot dog off my brother’s Blackstone grill while chasing his three toddlers around the backyard.

Neither of “my brands” are publicly traded, so I continued my search for an opportunity to profit from America’s summer hot dog fixation.

Checking the Stats

I was honestly curious about which brands dominated this food category. Bar-S is in fact the highest selling by pack volume.

Ball Park Franks lead the market in total revenue hitting over $500 million annually. These hot dogs are part of the Hillshire Brands family which became a Tyson Foods (TSN) holding in 2014.

TSN is one of the largest meatpackers in the world, producing roughly 20% of beef, pork, and chicken sold in the US. It’s a company that I’ve followed for many years because of its market dominance in a consumer staples category.

Tyson pays a $0.51 quarterly dividend and has increased the payout for the past 14 years. But, its current 3.4% yield just isn’t high enough for me to want to add the company to my portfolio.

What about the hot dog with the most recognizable branding and jingle? That would have to be Oscar Mayer owned by Kraft Heinz Company (KHC). How many other brands have a fleet of hot dog shaped vehicles?

Unlike Tyson, Kraft Heinz also sells many of America’s favorite hot dog condiments. KHC has a massive family of brands from Jello to Velveeta, and from Cool Whip to A-1 Steak Sauce. You can find its products in just about every aisle of the grocery store. I would normally say this vast exposure is a reason for owning KHC… but right now the inner aisles of the grocery store are struggling.

KHC has faced quarterly declines in its North American volumes for almost five years. The company is in a strategic pivot with some positive signs, but it’s just not a journey we should jump into at this time.

At the end of the day, my favorite hot dog investment was the brand synonymous with the holiday itself—Nathan’s Famous.

A New Opportunity

The first officially recorded Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating competition took place on July 4, 1972.

However, the lore of the event suggests it stems from a disagreement on the same day back in 1916. As the story goes, four immigrants gathered at the Coney Island hot dog stand to settle a dispute about who was the most patriotic. The answer was he who eats the most hot dogs.

Today, the Nathan’s Famous brand is owned by Smithfield Foods (SFD), the world’s largest pork processor. The SFD brand is almost as old as Nathan’s Famous—over 100 years old. But the opportunity to invest is new.

The company was taken private in 2013 by WH Group in the largest Chinese takeover of a US company at the time. WH remains the majority stakeholder, but the stock returned to the US markets in January of last year. And it’s a stock that should be on your radar.

Not only has SFD paid a dividend since re-entering the market, it also raised the payment after one year. The current $0.3125 per quarter equals a yield of 5% at current prices. But that’s not the best part. While many grocery companies are struggling, Smithfield reported record first-quarter results in April.

This makes sense because SFD avoids many of the current grocery challenges. Its brands are not sold in the center aisles and fighting for shelf space and pricing. And it doesn’t face as much private label brand competition. Remember, Smithfield is the largest pork producer in the world, so we can guess many of its competing store brand products are in fact not bottom-line competition.

I’m going to wait to see SFD’s next earnings before adding it to my portfolio, but I think this will end up being the best way to add grocery dividends in 2026.

For more income, now and in the future,

Kelly Green