The coronavirus has upended the markets. Global growth is slowing and the world’s economy appears to be heading towards a recession. For investors, the time to take risk isn’t now. Investors should be focussing on firms with large moats, big competitive advantages and strong demand even in the bad times. And no other stock fits that description better than our new Best Dividend Stocks List pick in the consumer sector.
Our pick is one of the largest retailers in the world and created the category in which it operates. With tens of thousands of stores across the world, our pick has been able to use its size and scope to be a low-cost leader. This focus on low prices and a broad basket of goods has given our pick tremendous staying power in times of trouble.
But our pick isn’t just focused on providing goods for low prices.
Thanks to some hefty tech investments, our new pick has become an online and omnichannel tour de force. With new apps, in-store tech upgrades, “click-and-collect” and a series of shrewd DTC buyouts, our pick has quickly become one of the leaders in the online shopping space as well. This combination of a huge storefront and online dominance has already resulted in rising revenues and profits for the retail giant. And with the coronavirus continuing to shift our shopping habits, our pick is poised to keep the growth going.
To summarize, here are five reasons why you should own this stock:
1. One of the largest retailers in the world with over 11,500 stores.
2. Huge moat and recession-resistant nature allowed it to pull in a record level of sales last year!
3. New tech upgrades and focus on omnichannel operations have our pick courting the customers of the future.
4. Recently increased its dividend by 2% representing more than four decades of raising payouts.
5. Healthy payout ratio of 43% and growing yield of 2.06%.
Removal of a Tech Giant From the Best Dividend Stocks List
Sometimes, shifts in the market can make even the best stocks suffer. And that’s the case with our pick in the technology sector. As a leading provider of networking equipment and software, our pick has been crushed thanks to falling demand due to the coronavirus and lingering effects of the trade war. While the firm has still provided decent guidance, traders have sold shares hard – too hard for our DARS model, and as a result, its relative strength score has become too low to be included on our coveted list. We’ve been forced to remove the stock. However, the firm’s large cash balance and flows still makes it worthy for dividend seekers.
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.
