The Consumer Tissue segment provides facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels, napkins and related products under the Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Viva, Andrex, Scottex, Neve and other brands.
The K-C Professional segment offers wipers, tissues, towels, apparel, soaps and sanitizers under the Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech and KleenGuard brands.
The company sells its household use products directly to supermarkets, mass merchandisers, drugstores, warehouse clubs, variety and department stores, and other retail outlets, as well as through other distributors and e-commerce. It sells away-from-home use products directly to manufacturing, lodging, office building, food service and public facilities, as well as through distributors and e-commerce.
Shareholders receive a 3.53% dividend. Jefferies has a $146 target price. The consensus target is $132.73. The final Kimberly-Clark stock trade on Friday was reported at $131.44.
McDonald’s
The legacy fast-food heavyweight is a solid pick when the economy goes south, and it is among the safest large-cap restaurant plays. McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) operates and franchises McDonald’s restaurants in the United States and internationally.
The company’s restaurants offer hamburgers and cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches and nuggets, wraps, fries, salads, oatmeal, shakes, desserts, sundaes, soft serve cones, bakery items, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages, as well as a breakfast menu, including biscuit and bagel sandwiches, breakfast burritos, hotcakes and other sandwiches. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 40,031 restaurants.
McDonald’s earnings jumped a strong 19% a beat estimates in the most recent period. Revenue rose 10% to $5.67 billion, also topping forecasts. In addition, same-store sales, which is a huge metric for the company, jumped 11.8%. While that number represented a big drop from prior quarters, it was much better than gloomy Wall Street expectations. U.S. comparison rose 3.5%, barely eclipsing the consensus target.
Shareholders receive a 2.20% dividend. UBS’s McDonald’s stock target price is a Wall Street leading $290. The consensus target is $279.79, and shares closed at $248.36 on Friday.
Most of these Dividend Aristocrats fit into the defensive stocks category. While they are much better ideas now than momentum and high beta stocks, the reality is a very big correction still could be looming. It makes sense for investors to scale buy shares over the summer, adding to positions on big pullback days like we have seen recently.
There is no way to sugarcoat the current situation, and what could happen as we enter into the summer doldrums. So it would be very prudent to raise cash from other, more aggressive ideas and rotate slowly into these blue-chip market leaders.
We purposely avoided big-box retail leaders, given the dreadful numbers Target posted in mid-May. What we focused on was companies that have products or services that are needed and purchased regardless of what the economy does. All these top stocks will continue to pay dividends to patient buy-and-hold investors until things brighten on the economic front. To be frank, it could be this time next year before we see solid improvement.
Originally posted at 24/7 Wall St.
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