Time for another ‘Article of Interest’ post.  This is the 14th post in this series, with the last one posting a little over two months ago.  This time I point you to a Kiplinger’s article listing 25 blue-chip stocks with impressive balance sheets.

To recap the intent of this series… every now and then, when perusing investing or personal finance articles across the Internet, I come across what I call an ‘Article of Interest’, or ‘A of I’ for short.

I decided it might be helpful to share a link to the article(s) in case some of my visitors would find it of interest as well.

In most cases, the articles will focus on dividend-paying stocks or dividend growth investing (DGI).  However, other finance-related topics might be highlighted, too.

Now that we are up-to-speed, let’s see what this A of I is about…

 

Link Overview

During the past year, when uncertainty surrounded so many businesses as a result of the pandemic, stocks with strong balance sheets were a good place to be invested.  Now, even though we appear to be well down the road to recovery, stocks with impressive cash positions and moderate debt levels should still be in vogue.

For the article, Kiplinger’s enlisted the help of Value Line to uncover stocks with A++ ratings for financial strength, and projected 3%-5% annual growth.  What they found were 25 large-cap stocks that many investors will be familiar with.

A strong balance sheet coupled with growth prospects should prove to be a winning combination whether the stock market continues to rally, or if the stock market decides to retreat after an astounding run-up since the bottom in March, 2020.

 

You won’t find stocks with large yields in this group.  In fact, not all of the listed stocks pay dividends (20 of the 25 stocks do).  However, those 5 that don’t pay dividends now could very well do so in the future given their hefty cash positions.

Of those stocks paying dividends, their dividend yields range from a low of 0.5% to a high of 3.4%, with only 5 of the 20 paying 2.0% or more.

However, what this group of stocks lacks when it comes to dividend yield it makes up for with strong growth & dividend growth.  This is how I tend to skew my Portfolio holdings these days given that I’m still in the accumulation phase, as opposed to the distribution phase.

Each stock making the list comes with a brief status/review, as well as the following info:

• Market Value
• Dividend Yield

The stocks are listed in alphabetical order.

 

https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/602616/blue-chips-with-brawny-balance-sheets

 

I found that I own 8 of the 20 dividend payers from the list.  This gives me 12 good stocks to research as possible Portfolio additions.

As for the 5 non-dividend payers, I own 3 of them in accounts outside of my dividend Portfolio.

 

How many of these stocks are already present in your portfolio?  Of the ones that aren’t, which are you most interested to establish a position in?  Or, do you find this group of stocks unappealing for your portfolio due to the lower dividend yields?

 

I hope you find the article useful and/or enjoyable.  As always, please share your thoughts once you’ve had a chance to read the material.

See you next time…