Broader equities have performed so well in recent years that the dividends companies pay haven’t kept pace. As a result, the S&P 500‘s average yield is just 1.1% right now. Thankfully, it’s possible to find high-yield dividend stocks that are worth investing in. Here are three examples: Pfizer (PFE +1.29%), Novo Nordisk (NVO +1.86%), and Sanofi (SNY +1.21%). All three have faced some issues lately, but they are worth sticking with for the long haul, especially for dividend seekers. Let me explain.

1. Pfizer

Several headwinds — including mediocre financial results and upcoming patent cliffs — have pushed Pfizer’s shares down significantly over the past few years. But the drugmaker hasn’t suspended or decreased its payouts. As a result, Pfizer’s forward dividend yield is now a juicy 7.1%. And despite the issues it has faced, it’s a great time to pick up Pfizer’s shares on the dip. The pharmaceutical leader boasts several products that are posting solid sales growth and should help nudge the top-line in the right direction over the medium term. The list includes Padcev, a cancer medicine, and Abrysvo, a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine.

Today’s Change

(1.29%) $0.32

Current Price

$25.14

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$143BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day’s Range

$24.86 – $25.36

52wk Range

$23.11 – $28.75

Volume

50M

Avg Vol

41.2M

Gross Margin

65.16%

Dividend Yield

6.84%

Further, the healthcare giant has a deep pipeline that should make significant progress over the next few years. Pfizer’s efforts in oncology and weight-loss look particularly promising. By the end of the decade, the company should launch brand-new products in these fields to help it overcome the loss of patent exclusivity for medicines like Eliquis, an anticoagulant, and drive long-term growth.

Pfizer’s financial results won’t bounce back immediately, but its share price could jump well before then as the company makes solid clinical and regulatory progress with key pipeline programs. That’s why investors shouldn’t wait too long before initiating positions.

2. Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk is best known for its work in the diabetes and weight loss markets, and with good reason. The company remains one of the undisputed leaders in these fields, despite recent setbacks that have sunk its stock price over the past couple of years. Novo Nordisk is well-positioned to bounce back, though. The company boasts a strong pipeline of candidates across its core therapeutic areas. Novo Nordisk’s zenagamtide (amycretin) is currently undergoing phase 3 studies — in a subcutaneous and an oral formulation — as a potential weight loss treatment in people who are either overweight or obese.

It also posted strong phase 2 results, showing statistically significant reductions in blood sugar and weight loss in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Today’s Change

(1.86%) $0.94

Current Price

$51.50

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$173BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day’s Range

$50.61 – $51.77

52wk Range

$35.12 – $71.80

Volume

407.8K

Avg Vol

14.1M

Gross Margin

81.84%

Dividend Yield

3.50%

Zenagamtide could become an important drug for Novo Nordisk as it moves beyond its famous therapies, Ozempic and Wegovy. And the Denmark-based pharmaceutical leader is also inching closer to approval for CagriSema, another diabetes and weight-loss treatment. Elsewhere, Novo Nordisk is making progress in diversifying its lineup. It is particularly targeting rare blood diseases. The company recently announced positive phase 3 clinical trials for denecimig, an investigational treatment for hemophilia.

Novo Nordisk’s strong position in the rapidly growing GLP-1 area and clinical progress elsewhere could allow the stock to recover. Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk offers a forward yield of 3.6% and routinely increases its payouts, making it a great pick for income seekers.

3. Sanofi

Sanofi has faced some headwinds recently, including a leadership change and clinical setbacks. The stock has lagged broader equities as a result. However, there remain good reasons to be optimistic about Sanofi’s long-term prospects. Here are three of them. First, the company’s most important growth driver, Dupixent, is still performing very well. Dupixent is a medicine indicated for the treatment of eczema and COPD; Sanofi shares the rights to this therapy with Regeneron (REGN +2.18%). Dupixent is one of the world’s best-selling drugs and is still helping Sanofi post decent sales growth.

Today’s Change

(1.21%) $0.53

Current Price

$44.21

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$106BMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day’s Range

$43.49 – $44.24

52wk Range

$40.89 – $52.68

Volume

2.9M

Avg Vol

3.2M

Gross Margin

65.90%

Dividend Yield

5.47%

Second, Sanofi should make solid pipeline progress over the next few years. For instance, the company’s frexalimab, an investigational therapy for multiple sclerosis (among other diseases), is undergoing phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials. Frexalimab posted excellent mid-stage results and could eventually generate well over $1 billion in annual sales at its peak. Sanofi boasts several other promising candidates. Third, the company offers an attractive forward dividend yield of 5.6% and regularly increases its payouts. The dividend is safe despite recent obstacles, and the stock is worth holding for a while.

“I’ve been quietly keeping an eye on real-world asset tokenization for a while now,” the account wrote in the now-deleted series of tweets. “Most of it is noise. But underneath the noise, something real is happening.”

Chesky is an active user of X, where he routinely shares product updates, earnings commentary, and lessons from building Airbnb with his more than 1.2 million followers. He’s even used the platform to crowdsource suggestions for business improvements, such as lowering cleaning fees and, ironically, crypto payments, which earned praise from X owner Elon Musk. “This kind of interaction with users is awesome,” Musk wrote in response to the 2023 call for ideas, urging other companies to take note. Commentary from Chesky on crypto is out of character for his accounts. 

This week, though, Chesky’s replies were filled with accusations of “AI slop,” a term that describes low-quality content produced by artificial intelligence.  

Users pointed out aspects of the Chesky “tokenization” post that suggested it had been cooked up by AI. “One thing that really makes AI writing distinct is the lack [of] commas,” Bloomberg’s Joseph Weisenthal wrote. 

Communications strategist and Rostra founder Lulu Cheng Meservey, meanwhile, warned that “CEOs damage trust when they post unfiltered claudeslop.” 

When Fortune analyzed Chesky’s thread through AI-detection tool Pangram, the system flagged it as 100% AI-generated. The posts have since been deleted. Airbnb declined to provide a public comment. 

The thread appeared as a reply to a user referencing Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s recent interview with CNBC, in which he discussed the growing market for tokenized real-world assets.

The hacked posts were flagged to X and escalated to platform security teams as a “high-profile compromise,” according to correspondence between Airbnb and X employees reviewed by Fortune. X secured the account on Tuesday evening, and Chesky was then able to regain access to his account. 

The rise of AI slop

Chesky has previously praised the use of artificial intelligence, telling CNBC in February that the tech “is the best thing that ever happened to Airbnb.” The serial founder is also preparing to launch a new AI lab focused on building new models, according to Bloomberg. 

But the surge of low-quality AI-generated content is becoming a bigger headache for both business leaders and creatives, and the volume of mediocre images, videos, and text has grown so overwhelming that Merriam-Webster named “slop” its 2025 word of the year. A new analysis by AI detection platform Pangram found that roughly one in four long-form social media posts are now AI-generated. Nearly half of X’s longer “Articles” contain AI-written material.

Leaders across industries are concerned. Substack CEO Chris Best warned in September that AI could clog already crowded feeds with low-quality content and strain an attention economy he referred to as a “scarce resource.” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan dedicated a section of his annual letter to “managing AI slop,” declaring it a top priority for 2026. Oscar-winning director Christoper Nolan told The Telegraph this week that Gen Zers are “utterly rejecting” AI slop with reactions that are “immediate and harsh.”

“They see it for what it is very quickly,” The Odyssey director said. “It’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well.”

A recent report from social media management platform Sprout Social found that 56% of respondents say they encounter “AI slop” on social media often or very often, and 83% say they see it at least sometimes. Gen Z is more likely to rebuff the content, too. Half of respondents said they have unfollowed, muted, or blocked accounts if the content felt like AI slop.

Fortune 500 CEO security 

Chesky is not the first Fortune 500 CEO to have a social media account compromised. 

In 2016, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts were briefly compromised by a group called OurMine Team.

“Hey @finkd (Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter handle) we got access to your Twitter & Instagram & Pinterest, we are just testing your security, please dm (direct message) us,” the now-deleted post read. 

In 2019, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s account was briefly taken over for 20 minutes, an action that led to the platform to permanently disable its “text-to-tweet” (SMS) feature.