Dividend.com has added a retail giant to the Best Dividend Stocks List and removed a diversified industrial company from the list.
Quick. Name two sectors facing plenty of potential detrimental headwinds? There’s a good chance you said retail and housing. Online and e-commerce continue to eat traditional brick-and-mortar retailers’ lunch, while the lingering effects of the housing crisis still persist. So, naturally, a retailer operating in the home goods sector would be suffering even more, right?
Well, our latest Best Dividend Stocks List pick is proving skeptics wrong in a big way.
Plumbing equipment, riding lawn mowers and other home-improvement items still require a hands-on touch and an in-store shopping experience. You simply don’t buy sheets of plywood from an app and have them delivered to your doorstep. And thanks to its relatively Amazon-proof business model, our pick has continued to see rising sales in the face of the housing and retail slowdown.
But that’s only half the story. Our pick has a long runway to keep the growth going.
For starters, home prices, ownership and the economy are once again on the rise. This has boosted sales further in the medium term. Its domestic focus and the new tax plan haven’t hurt either. The longer term is equally as rosy. Our pick has begun to court Millennials through workshops, a growing online presence and new exclusive products designed for customers in their age brackets. And it’s working in spades.
For investors, all of this creates plenty of cash flows and increased dividends. Back in February, our pick was able to increase its payout by nearly 16% based on its strong cash-flow generation and improving sales.
All in all, our pick continues to prove skeptics wrong and operates in the tough/home environments with gusto.
To summarize, here are five reasons why you should own this stock:
- Huge operating footprint with more than $100 billion in revenues recorded in 2017.
- Targeting key Millennial consumer demographic with new tech, products and hands-on installation/workshops.
- Winning the war in omni-channel retailing with the successful integration of store and online shopping options.
- Distributed over $12 billion in dividends and share buybacks in 2017.
- Healthy payout ratio of 43% and increasing yield of 2.05%.
Removal of a Diversified Industrial from the Best Dividend Stocks List
The potential of a trade war and resulting tariffs hasn’t exactly been too kind for the major industrials. Several have suffered in recent weeks as investors have abandoned shares. Unfortunately, that includes one of our Best Dividend Stocks List picks in the sector.
After providing a nearly 29% total return since its addition in November of 2016, momentum has been zapped from shares. That’s hurt its relative strength score and brought down its overall DARS score. With this and the strength of our new pick, it’s time to say goodbye to our industrial and remove it from our list.
However, the quality of our previous industrial pick still remains robust based on our model. For investors, this could mean it still has plenty of value as an income pick.
Find out here which retail giant entered the Best Dividend Stocks List last week.
