Consumer Defensive

Coca-Cola (KO) stock hasn’t been getting a lot of love lately on my Twitter feed, and that’s understandable judging by its recent history. The shares trade around the $61.40 mark – roughly equal to a 4% earnings yield; 2.8% dividend yield – which may look a bit rich in light of the headwinds facing soda consumption in developed markets. That trend has shown up at…

Despite being a disappointing performer, I remain a big fan of Budweiser and Stella Artois owner AB InBev (BUD). I know that may sound daft given its ongoing struggle to digest the $110b purchase of SABMiller a few years ago, and that’s before even mentioning the woeful stock returns in that time too. Ultimately the SAB deal has left AB InBev with a bloated balance…

As regular readers will know, Molson Coors (TAP) had its issues even before COVID hit. In very broad terms I think you can boil those down to two points. Firstly, the company took on a bunch of debt to buy out the rest of the MillerCoors JV in 2016. Debt net of cash clocked in at circa $11.5b at its peak, roughly equivalent to 4.5-5x…

Procter & Gamble (PG) – in business since 1837, paying dividends since 1890, listed on the NYSE since 1891, increasing dividends since the late 1950s. Some folks call dividend investing faddish, but I love Steady Eddies like this one. Pandemics, wars, recessions, booms, busts – Procter just racks up quarter after quarter of profits, dividends and retained earnings. That it achieves this by selling simple…

PepsiCo (PEP) stock last appeared on the site back in April. At the time, the snacks and beverage giant had just released financial results covering its first quarter. The numbers came in strong, with organic sales growth at just under 8% and profit per share (“EPS”) growth at 10% versus the prior year. The shares traded for $132 each back then, equal to around 24x…