Buying a dividend stock that's cheap can be a great way to maximize the returns you'll make from owning it. Not only will you earn dividend income, but you can also benefit if the stock rises in value. And the cheaper the stock is, the more the potential upside there is.
Below are three stocks that are incredibly cheap and almost too good to pass up right now.
1. Walgreens
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA -0.23%) hasn't gotten a whole lot of love this year as its share price is down 29% year to date, which is much worse than the S&P 500 (down 3%) has done thus far. But for dividend investors, this isn't all bad news. Walgreens is a top pharmacy retailer and has done a great job of adapting to the new reality that the COVID-19 pandemic created.
On May 4, the company announced it was launching a drive-through where customers could order their items ahead of time and pick up their purchases at more than 7,300 participating locations across the country. It allows customers to avoid having to go into the store.
Image source. Getty Images.
And that's not the only drive-through service the company offers. In April, Walgreens announced it would expand its drive-through testing locations for COVID-19 to 49 states and Puerto Rico, offering people quick and easy ways to test for the coronavirus.
One of the main reasons Walgreens is a solid dividend stock for your portfolio is because the company has consistently posted a profit, staying in the black in each of its past four quarters.
Another reason is that the stock is a Dividend Aristocrat and has increased its payouts for 44 years in a row. Currently, it pays a quarterly dividend that yields around 4.5% per year, well above the 2% you'd earn from the average S&P 500 stock. When the company releases its earnings later this month, investors will learn whether its dividend streak will continue, since it was a year ago that Walgreens last increased its payout.
At a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 11 and a price-to-book multiple of about 1.5, this is a dirt-cheap dividend stock, even for value investors.
2. Toronto-Dominion Bank
The stock of Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD 0.76%) isn't doing as badly as Walgreens, but is still underperforming the S&P 500 with a share price down more than 20% so far this year. The top Canadian bank stock has operations in both Canada and the U.S. On May 28, the company released strong second-quarter results despite a sharp increase in its provision for credit losses, which rose from 633 million Canadian dollars ($464 million) a year ago to more than CA$3.2 billion.
Despite the increase, the bank still reported net income in Q2 of CA$1.5 billion, about half the CA$3.2 billion it recorded in the prior-year period. That was still good enough for a 14% profit margin (typically TD sees at least 27% of its top line flow through to the bottom).
The bank currently pays a dividend with an annual yield around 5.2% That's a great yield from a top dividend stock that will also give your portfolio some good exposure outside of the U.S.
The decline in price has put the stock on sale: TD currently trades at a P/E of 10 and a P/B of just 1.2. It's paying a better yield than Walgreens, is a cheaper buy, and it's arguably a safer stock over the long haul. Those are all good reasons to buy the stock today.
3. Intel
Intel (INTC -1.79%) won't pay you nearly as high a dividend as the other two stocks on this list. But it still provides a 2.2% yield that's better than the S&P 500 average. It's also not often you can grab a great tech stock for your portfolio that also pays a dividend.
The computer, communications, networking, and storage company is in a relatively good position during the COVID-19 pandemic. As more businesses move toward the cloud, demand for Intel's computers, processors, and cloud computing solutions is likely to continue to be strong. When the company released its first-quarter 2020 results on April 23, they showed that sales were up an impressive 23%. Like TD, Intel has also been generating strong profits along the way. In each of its last four quarters, the company's profit margin has come in above 25%.
Although its dividend isn't terribly high, Intel's a good growth stock and is only down less than 1% this year. With a P/E of 11 and P/B of around 3, it's another bargain dividend stock that can help diversify your portfolio.
Which stock is the best buy right now?
Here's how these stocks have done against the S&P 500 this year:
Intel's been the only one to outperform the index, and it's also the stock I'd buy today. Although its dividend may not be terribly high, its cloud business and focus on computing make it ideal for your portfolio if you're worried about COVID-19 and the impact social distancing will have on the economy.
