Fintech companies have revolutionized investing, investors have often been able to scoop up stocks for no trading commissions over the last few years. This has eliminated the need to save hundreds or thousands of dollars to make a single stock purchase and avoid the commission eating away at investment returns.
Investors who have a few dollars to invest can buy at least one whole share of each of these three affordable stocks for less than $50.
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1. Altria Group: A market leader with an inelastic product
Regardless of what's going on around the world, it's a safe bet (sadly health-wise) that cigarettes will always be consumed due to nicotine's addictive nature. Cigarettes are inelastic products whose demand declines less than the amount of the price hikes passed on to consumers. This has allowed the revenue of tobacco companies in the U.S. to edge higher year after year, even as the number of smokers has declined for decades.
And with nearly half of the U.S. cigarette retail share, Altria Group (MO -0.37%) dominates the market. The company's premium Marlboro product is the top-selling cigarette brand in the country, accounting for the vast majority of Altria Group's total cigarette market share. But for consumers that are on a tighter budget and more susceptible to switching to cheaper cigarettes in a recession, the company has discount cigarette brands as well. And for consumers seeking an alternative to the combustion of cigarettes thought to release harmful chemicals, Altria Group completely owns a stake in a leading oral tobacco-derived nicotine brand known as on!.
Altria Group's pricing power and product portfolio appeals to a wide variety of customers and bodes well for its future. This is why analysts anticipate that the company will deliver 4.2% annual earnings growth over the next five years.
At the current $45 share price, investors can scoop up Altria Group at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just under nine. And with a dividend payout ratio below its targeted payout ratio of 80%, income investors can rest assured that the stock's 8.5% dividend yield is reasonably safe.
2. Enterprise Products Partners: An energy player that fuels many wants and needs
If you live in an economically developed country, you likely own a smartphone among other consumer goods, use electricity, and heat your home in the winter months. And none of these amenities would be possible without crude oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals.
With more than 50,000 miles of pipeline infrastructure throughout the U.S. to store and transport natural gas, crude oil, and petrochemicals, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD 0.45%) is the ever-important middleman between production companies and refiners. While alternative energy sources will increasingly be used in the future across the world, overall energy demand will also increase as more join the ranks of the middle class. This means that natural gas and petrochemicals will likely be as important in 20 years as they are now.
That's why Enterprise Products Partners' distributable cash flow should edge slightly higher over the long run. Along with the fact that the company's 7.6% dividend yield was covered 1.9 times in the first half of 2022, this positions the distribution to continue growing. And at the present $25 unit price, $50 could buy two units of the stock.
3. VICI Properties: A provider of places for memories to be made
A recent survey of consumers found that 76% would rather spend on experiences than on material possessions. And VICI Properties' (VICI -0.28%) portfolio of 43 gaming properties and four championship golf courses leased out to tenants help customers to make memories that will last a lifetime. The company's property portfolio includes the world-renowned Caesars Palace Las Vegas and Borgata in Atlantic City.
Thanks to the iconic nature of VICI Properties' Las Vegas-based and regional properties, the company boasts a 100% occupancy rate. Coupled with the fact that 96% of its leases will include rent escalators linked to inflation by 2035, the company's adjusted funds from operations (FFO) per share should grow over time.
VICI Properties' targeted dividend payout ratio of 75% should also build in a margin of safety for the dividend. And investors can snatch up the stock's appetizing 4.8% dividend yield at a current share price of $33. For context, this is a price-to-AFFO per share ratio of 17.1.
