If there is one constant in the world these days, it’s conflict. And it’s one of the reasons why the defense sector continues to be a long-term winner for investors and their portfolios. With conflict between the United States and Iran moving beyond saber-rattling, the defense sector has seen its stars shine even further. This includes our latest Best Dividend Stocks List pick in the sector.
While our pick is a conglomerate – with aerospace and defense being its major winners for years – this has only driven its profit growth, cash flows and dividend growth since the recession. And with a huge backlog of aerospace projects and contracts, our pick remains a top draw in the defense and commercial aerospace industries.
But the real win for our pick could be the future of conflict and its plans to focus even more on the surging aerospace sector.
This is because our pick is not only breaking itself apart and freeing itself from its non-defense assets, but it’s also merging with one of the largest defense contractors on the planet. The new combination will be a formidable force in the sector – spanning a wide variety of aerospace, cyber-security and weapons technologies. Moreover, our pick continues to dive head first into the connected aerospace market, with a focus on software, subscriptions and IoT applications for airplanes and defense systems, which will only create a long tailwind of recurring revenues and profits down the road.
In the end, we can’t avoid conflict. For investors in our Best Dividend Stocks List pick in the defense sector, this is a very good thing.
To summarize, here are five reasons why you should own this stock:
1. Paid cash dividends on its common stock every year since 1936 – growing that payout by more than 500% since 2001!
2. Top play in the digital aerospace and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market. Software/services is quickly becoming a big revenue driver.
3. Big winner during the recent market rout and Middle East tensions.
4. Pending three-way split and merger will make it an aerospace/defense champion.
5. Healthy payout ratio of 36% and growing yield of 1.98%.
Our Best Dividend Stocks List has 20 of the highest-rated stocks by our proprietary rating system. Go Premium to find out the entire list.
