Updating your Income-Growth Payers: Procter & Gamble Co.

Article Excerpt

PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $138 is a buy. The consumer-products giant (New York symbol PG; Income-Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.5 billion; Market cap: $345.0 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.pg.com) last raised its quarterly dividend by 6.0% in May 2020. The new annual rate of $3.16 yields 2.2%. Procter has paid dividends for 130 years and has increased its payout annually for the past 64. The stock has jumped 46% since falling to $94.34 on March 23, 2020—that drop was part of the broad market downturn spurred by the pandemic. The bounce back is mainly because COVID-19 continues to spur strong consumer demand for home cleaning and personal hygiene products. For its fiscal 2021 first quarter, ended September 30, 2020, Procter’s sales were $19.3 billion, 8.5% higher than the $17.8 billion a year earlier. That gain was mainly due to higher volumes (up 7%) and prices (up 1%). As well, all five of the company’s business units reported…