Dividend cuts are one of those things that dividend investors hate to see, and avoiding them starts by picking the right companies. There's no surefire method, but starting with companies that have a proven history of returning cash to investors is a good approach. From there, you need to look at a company's business and dividend-paying ability.
Procter & Gamble (PG 0.14%), T. Rowe Price (TROW 1.76%), and Chevron (CVX +0.05%) look like three of the safest dividend stocks in the world today.
1. Necessities
Procter & Gamble has increased its dividend every year for 67 consecutive years, making it a Dividend King. The dividend yield today is around 2.5%. That's roughly middle of the road for the stock, historically speaking, suggesting that it is trading at a fair price. The company is a giant in the consumer staples space.
NYSE: PG
Key Data Points
Procter & Gamble sells things that we use every day, like toilet paper, toothpaste, and deodorant. It owns a collection of iconic brands that have strong customer loyalty. Even in a weak economy, these are products that people continue to buy, given the relatively low cost and high importance of the items.
On top of that, with a $340 billion market cap, the company is among the largest in the consumer staples industry, giving it economies of scale that are hard to displace. That's the strong core that supports the dividend.
P&G has a solid balance sheet with a reasonable debt-to-equity ratio of 0.8, covering its interest costs by over 40 times.
2. Riding the market
T. Rowe Price has increased its dividend annually for 37 consecutive years. The dividend yield is historically high today at roughly 4.6%, suggesting the stock is trading cheaply. The company is a dominant player in asset management, where customers avoid changing providers because of the hassle involved.
NASDAQ: TROW
Key Data Points
The high yield today is largely because of the dynamics of T. Rowe Price's business. The company charges fees to its generally sticky customer accounts based on the assets it has under management (AUM). That number goes up and down over time, with bull and bear markets having the largest impact on the figure.
The business is inherently volatile, just like the stock market in which those assets are invested. But T. Rowe Price has proved that it knows how to handle the swings.
It has no debt -- in fact, it has $2.5 billion in cash and investments that it could tap if it needed to. And there's another $1.1 billion of capital in seed investments (for example, cash in new mutual funds it's trying to start) that it could use.
With so much cash floating around and no debt, it is highly unlikely that T. Rowe Price will need to cut its dividend anytime soon.
3. Leaning in
The last stock up is integrated energy giant Chevron, which has increased its dividend annually for 36 years running. The yield is around 4% today. That's a fair figure historically speaking, suggesting the stock is neither overly expensive nor shockingly cheap.
NYSE: CVX
Key Data Points
Energy is a cyclical industry, so investors have to expect Chevron's performance to rise and fall, sometimes dramatically. But the oil and natural gas that the company produces are likely to be in high demand for a long time -- even as demand for renewable power grows.
Meanwhile, Chevron has one of the strongest balance sheets of its closest peers, with a debt-to-equity ratio of just 0.15 times. When the energy market is weak, Chevron takes on debt so it can continue to fund its business and dividend. When the energy sector inevitably recovers, it pays down the debt it took on.
That sounds simple, and in some ways it is, but Chevron has proved incredibly adept at navigating a very complex market over time while continuing to reward investors along the way.
Nothing is guaranteed
Even companies with incredibly long histories of increasing dividends sometimes end up cutting their dividends. So you can't just assume P&G, T. Rowe Price, and Chevron can keep paying without checking in on them at least once or twice a year.
But given the solid foundations on which they are built, they look like some of the strongest dividend stocks you can find. And their histories of returning value to investors via increasing their payouts suggests that there is a deep commitment to shareholders. If you are a conservative dividend investor, all three should be on your watch list, if not your wish list.
