There's no way around it. I'm approaching the age of 40 faster than I'd like. Despite this undeniable fact, locating high-yield stocks to generate passive income isn't high on my priority list just yet.

However, scouting for dividend growth stocks that offer the potential for substantial long-term passive income growth over the next 10 to 20 years could prove to be a game-changing proposition for me (and investors of a similar age).

Not only have dividend growth stocks beaten an equal-weighted S&P 500 index by 2.5 percentage points annually since 1973, they also act as literal passive income machines for investors who were patient enough to hold until retirement.

Let's examine three of my favorite dividend growth stocks -- ASML (ASML -1.55%), Wingstop (WING -1.05%), and Zoetis (ZTS -1.54%) -- and discuss what sets them apart from the crowd.

1. ASML

ASML holds a dominant leadership position in its niche in the semiconductor industry: Lithography. This is the near-magic process of etching infinitesimal patterns onto the silicon wafers used to make semiconductor chips in today's most advanced technologies.

With more than a 50% market share with its more mature deep-ultraviolet lithography equipment and a near-monopoly with its bleeding-edge extreme-ultraviolet units, ASML will play a key role in the rise of artificial intelligence and advanced computing.

Its largest customer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), recently announced that its capital expenditures (such as equipment purchases from ASML) would rise roughly 30% in 2025 to build more complex chips. While this guidance from TSMC makes the upcoming year look promising for ASML, we've had a DeepSeek-sized reminder that the world of futuristic tech can change in the blink of an eye. Simply put, if investors can't take the technological "leap of faith" needed to invest in ASML (if you're like me and not a lithography whiz), there's no shame in putting this one in the "too hard" pile.

However, with management expecting sales to grow between 9% and 16% through 2025 and ASML dominating its critical niche, I'm happy to buy more shares of the company while it's down 33% from its highs.

2. Wingstop

Chicken wing franchisor Wingstop offers investors the rare combination of immense dividend growth potential and supercharged revenue growth. The company is currently home to about 2,500 locations worldwide, but management believes it can quadruple this store count over the long term.

If Wingstop's most recent quarterly results were any indication, it's well on its way to doing so. After growing its store count by 17% in the third quarter, the company delivered a revenue increase of 39% -- accelerating above its 10-year average of 26%.

Despite these impressive results, the company's shares have tumbled nearly 30%, mainly because it was "priced for perfection," trading at more than 100 times cash from operations. Following this decline, however, investors would be wise to reconsider investing in the quickly growing buffalo wing franchisor.

Consider the following comparisons to its mega-peer, Chipotle Mexican Grill. Not only does Wingstop boast higher revenue growth rates and elevated profitability compared to Chipotle, it now has a very similar valuation following the former's share price decline amid stellar results.

Data by YCharts.

With the company on track to post its 21st consecutive year of same-store sales growth (it's not a one-trick pony growing solely by store count expansion), Wingstop is a top dividend growth stock for me to double up on today.

3. Zoetis

My final dividend growth stock, Zoetis, might be the "safest" in the group. With 15 product lines each generating over $100 million in annual revenue, the company provides medicines, vaccines, genetic tests, diagnostics, biodevices, and numerous other precision animal health services.Zoetis is a well-diversified leader in keeping our pets and livestock safe and healthy.

The permanent importance of keeping our livestock healthy, paired with the ever-deepening pet-human bond, has made Zoetis an incredibly resilient operator. Its free cash flow has more than quadrupled over the last decade, but it could be poised to keep surging after Zoetis recently launched new osteoarthritis (OA) medicines for cats and dogs.

In just 11 months, the company's Librela OA medicine for dogs has treated over 1 million pooches and is already the fourth-highest-selling product in the U.S. pet care industry. With an estimated 17 million dogs affected by OA, helping these pups could be the next chapter of Zoetis' growth story, making it another top dividend growth stock to double up on in 2025.

Immense dividend growth potential

ASML and Zoetis grew their dividends by 24% and 29% annually over the last decade. To help quantify how robust this growth is, consider that investors who bought ASML 10 years ago now receive a 6.7% dividend yield compared to their original cost basis. The narrative is similar for Zoetis, as investors who bought in 2015 would now have a 4.6% yield on cost.

Compared to ASML's current dividend yield of 0.9% and Zoetis' mark of 1%, these hefty yield-on-cost figures illustrate the power of buy-to-hold investing with dividend growth stocks.

Wingstop's dividend growth story is quite similar, albeit maybe even more impressive. Since starting payouts in 2017, Wingstop has increased its dividend payments by 18% annually while paying out five special dividends totaling more than $18 per share.

Had investors bought shares of the company at the time of its first dividend payment, they would now receive a 4% yield on their cost basis -- a far cry from today's 0.3% dividend yield.

These three stocks are perfect examples of why a company's dividend growth potential is more important than its current dividend yield. Best yet, despite their quickly rising dividends, all three maintain a payout ratio below 33%.

ASML WING ZTS Payout Ratio data by YCharts.

The above chart shows that even after a decade of dividend increases, these fine businesses still use less than one-third of their net income to fund their dividend payments, leaving a lot of room for future hikes.

Armed with this wiggle room for dividend boosts and each's company's stellar operations, these three stocks offer investors some of the best passive income potential on the market.