When the economy is going well, businesses hire consultants to help drive expansion plans and analyze business decisions. Whereas when things are going poorly, consultants get hired to manage risk and provide verdicts on improving efficiencies, cutting costs, and even preventing bankruptcies. The point is, no matter what the economy is doing, those firms specializing in research and advice tend to win.
This has all been wonderful news for our most recent Best Dividend Stocks List pick in the sector.
Rising from the ashes of the dot-com bust, our new pick has transformed itself into a consultancy powerhouse. Offering advice, business strategies, implementation of tech and other studies for governments and businesses, our pick has continued to thrive both in good and bad times. The secret continues to be its high margins. With its capital expenditures focused on technology and labor costs, our pick has been about to reap massive cash flows from its businesses.
And it’s managed to share those with its investors: Buybacks have surged, while it raised its dividend for almost every year in the last decade.
The best part is that there could be more in store for our pick. Pivoting and partnering with some of the biggest names in tech, our pick has quickly emerged as a go-to name for other firms to build their cloud and virtual infrastructure. Data, artificial intelligence (AI), and other high-tech advice and implementation have become major portions of its revenues – and this continues to grow as more businesses look to harness their operations and improve efficiencies.
In the end, the power of advice makes for a wonderful dividend stock in any economic environment.
To summarize, here are five reasons why you should own this stock:
1. One of the largest consultants pulling in more than $40 billion in sales last year.
2. Benefits from both good and bad economic environments given the nature of consulting business.
3. Increased its dividend for nearly 10 years straight.
4. Moves into big data, AI and cloud computing have continued to boost margins even further.
5. Healthy payout ratio of 42% and growing yield of 1.79%.
Removal of a Banking Name
Now isn’t exactly the best time to be a bank. With interest rates now at zero and loan defaults creeping up, many stocks in the sector will be pressed for profits over the next few quarters. And investors have reacted accordingly and sold shares. Sadly, this has included one of our picks in the sector. Despite its strong long prospects, the short term has pushed many of its DARS metrics below our thresholds, and we’ve been forced to remove it from our list.
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.
