With fears of recession, one of the safest stocks to own in Costco (COST).
With a dividend yield of 0.53%, COST sells needed products that consumers must have no matter how well or how poorly the economy is doing. In fact, no matter how steep of a downturn, consumers still need soap, detergent, toothpaste, toilet paper, food, etc. All can help provide a steadier and far more predictable cash flow for COST.
Even better, it just raised its dividend.
According to the latest press release, “Costco Wholesale Corporation announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on Costco common stock and approved a quarterly increase from 79 to 90 cents per share, $3.60 on an annualized basis. The dividend is payable May 13, 2022, to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 29, 2022.”
Plus, earnings have been solid.
For its second quarter, the company saw EPS of $2.92 on sales of $51.9 billion. That was better than expectations for EPS of $2.76 on sales of $51.53 billion. Same store sales were up 11.1%.
In addition, as reported by Barron’s: “’Near-term, the market may be underestimating the strength of Costco’s position with higher inflation’ wrote Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink, given that the overall results confirmed the company’s ability to handle this and other supply-chain related headwinds. She has a Buy rating and $650 target on the stock.’”
