In this current choppy climate, dividend stocks provide a welcome and profitable way to hedge your bets. Bank of America tells investors that dividends can help offset losses in weak markets, "and over long-time horizons, stocks with a history of increasing their dividend each year have also produced higher returns with considerably less risk than non-dividend-paying stocks."

We recently utilized TipRanks' stock screener to pinpoint the most compelling dividend opportunities right now. These are dividend stocks that boast wide support from the Street, and sizeable upside potential to boot.

All the stocks on this list share a "Strong Buy" analyst consensus based only on ratings from the last three months. In other words, sentiment isn't just strong - it's recent, and thus based on the most up-to-date information these analysts can have.

The following seven dividend stocks offer a one-two punch of income and return potential. Let's take a closer look:

Amgen

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Market value: $111.5 billion

Dividend yield: 2.8%

TipRanks consensus price target: $198 (18% upside potential)

TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy

Multinational biopharma company Amgen (, $168.49) pays out nearly 3%