Three Undervalued Blue-Chip Dividend Plays Trading Below $100—Here's Why Investors Are Taking Notice

The Setup: Where High Yields Meet Deep Discounts

The stock market often presents a curious paradox: the best opportunities hide in plain sight. Right now, three household names—Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Target (NYSE: TGT), and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ)—are trading at prices that combine two investor favorites: generous dividend yields and valuations that suggest meaningful upside potential. All three trade under $100 per share, making them accessible entry points for retail investors hunting for income with growth kicker.

What makes this combination particularly intriguing? These aren’t obscure microcaps or turnaround stories built on speculation. They’re established players with real catalysts. The question isn’t whether they’ll recover—it’s whether the market will finally price in the transformation already underway.

Ford: The EV Retreat Is Opening the Profit Door Again

The narrative shift in automotive is stark. Four years ago, legacy automakers were in a mad dash to go electric. Federal incentives pointed toward EVs, and missing the wave felt like a death sentence. Ford dove in aggressively, building out its Model e division and pouring billions into battery technology.

The result? A disaster. Despite years of scaling and investment, Ford’s EV operation has bled red ink every quarter, with operating losses routinely exceeding $1 billion. The economics simply didn’t work at volume.

Enter 2025: emissions standards are easing, consumer demand for expensive EVs has cooled, and Ford’s management is finally making the rational decision to walk back the EV overcommitment. Instead, the company is returning to what it executes best—profitable gas-powered trucks and SUVs that actually generate cash.

The stock has already responded, surging as investors price in the return to profitability. But the reset isn’t finished. Ford trades at a forward P/E of just 9.3x, still below the 10-15x range the stock regularly commanded in recent years. The forward dividend yield sits at 4.5%, and with special dividends likely in 2026, total yield could exceed 5%. At these valuations, shareholders are getting paid to wait for the earnings recovery.

Target: Cheap Valuation + CEO Turnaround + Takeover Whispers

Few retailers have fallen as hard as Target over the past 18 months. Disappointing guidance, execution missteps, and consumer sentiment shifts have punished shares relentlessly. But therein lies the opportunity.

The stock now trades at 11.2x forward earnings—a stunning discount to competitor Walmart, which commands a 34x multiple. Even modest valuation expansion coupled with operational improvement would translate to substantial gains.

The new incoming CEO, Michael Fiddelke (currently COO), is implementing a focused restructuring: aggressive cost reduction paired with $4 billion in customer experience upgrades. It’s not a hail mary; it’s surgical.

There’s another element: the private equity angle. As large-format retailers face persistent pressure, activist investors and PE firms have started hunting for buyout targets. Nordstrom’s recent trajectory showed what can happen when the right bid emerges for an undervalued retailer. Target, with real estate assets and an iconic brand, could easily fall into that radar.

Sweetening the deal: Target maintains a 50-year track record of consecutive dividend increases, qualifying as a Dividend King. The forward yield exceeds 5%. You’re getting paid to hold while waiting for either operational turnaround or takeout premium.

Verizon: New Leadership’s Ambition to Escape the Value Trap

Verizon has inhabited an uncomfortable position: it’s a high-yield stock that’s simultaneously been a chronic market underperformer. Over five years, shares have lost nearly a third of their value. A decade out, the damage is only slightly less severe—down roughly 10%, while the S&P 500 tripled.

It’s textbook yield trap territory. Except circumstances have shifted.

New CEO Dan Schulman, who previously led PayPal, took the helm with explicit marching orders: cut costs ruthlessly and reignite growth. The 15,000-employee layoff made headlines, but the growth side of his mandate received less attention. Verizon is deliberately pivoting away from a technology-focused sales pitch toward customer experience obsession—a shift aimed at reducing churn and potentially driving net subscriber gains.

If executed, this reorientation could be transformative. Not only would earnings stabilize and expand, but the valuation multiple itself could re-rate upward as the company transitions from “stuck in the past” to “momentum player.” That’s a dual upside scenario.

The current forward dividend yield is an attractive 6.6%, giving you income while the turnaround unfolds. Verizon stock currently trades well under $100, providing straightforward entry for the thesis.

The Bigger Picture: Three Very Different Paths to Profit

What unites these three is the combination of:

• Compelling valuations relative to historical norms and peer sets
• Meaningful catalysts ranging from policy shifts to management transitions to potential M&A
• Attractive income generation at yields exceeding 4.5% to 6.6%

Ford benefits from a structural reset in the auto industry. Target is getting a CEO refresh plus potential private equity interest. Verizon is executing a culture shift under new leadership with proven track record elsewhere.

None of these is a lottery ticket. All three are quality franchises navigating real transitions. But quality plus transition plus deep valuation is precisely where outsized returns historically emerge.

For dividend-focused investors or value hunters, the opportunity to own multiple such situations simultaneously is rare. At current price levels, each deserves serious consideration.