Stocks I'm Buying The Third Week Of April

seekingalpha04-13

Job gains in March mainly came from immigrants and part-time employment.Real-time inflation is far lower than the CPI would lead you to believe and has been below the Fed's 2% target for the better ...

Source Link

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

Comments

We need your insight to fill this gap

Leave a comment

{"i18n":{"language":"en_US"},"isChannel":false,"data":{"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2427274100?lang=en_US&edition=fundamental","thumbnail":"https://static.seekingalpha.com/cdn/s3/uploads/getty_images/169955903/image_169955903.jpg","is_english":true,"pubTime":"2024-04-13 20:30","share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/5a36db9d73b4222bc376d24ccc48c8a4","id":"2427274100","market":"hk","top_or_hot":-1,"title":"Stocks I'm Buying The Third Week Of April","media":"seekingalpha","content":"<div>\n<p>Job gains in March mainly came from immigrants and part-time employment.Real-time inflation is far lower than the CPI would lead you to believe and has been below the Fed's 2% target for the better ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4683464-stocks-im-buying-the-third-week-of-april\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n","source":"seekingalpha","html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Stocks I'm Buying The Third Week Of April</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nStocks I'm Buying The Third Week Of April\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2024-04-13 20:30 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4683464-stocks-im-buying-the-third-week-of-april><strong>seekingalpha</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Job gains in March mainly came from immigrants and part-time employment.Real-time inflation is far lower than the CPI would lead you to believe and has been below the Fed's 2% target for the better ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4683464-stocks-im-buying-the-third-week-of-april\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"LU0648001328.SGD","symbol_name":"Natixis Harris Associates US Equity RA SGD","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4683464-stocks-im-buying-the-third-week-of-april","article_id":"2427274100","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":["https://static.seekingalpha.com/cdn/s3/uploads/getty_images/169955903/image_169955903.jpg"],"rights":null,"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2427274100","pubTimestamp":1713011400,"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"seekingalpha","name":"Seeking Alpha"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"In short, no. The majority of consumer prices are still solidly in disinflationary mode. To save time, here's the bullet point summary: The main factor holding up the CPI is the backwards-looking shelter component that lags real-time changes in housing costs by about a year. CPI ex shelter wa","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"seekingalpha.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"LU0648001328.SGD":"Natixis Harris Associates US Equity RA SGD","IE00B1BXHZ80.USD":"Legg Mason ClearBridge - US Appreciation A Acc USD","AMT":"美国电塔","IE0002270589.USD":"LEGG MASON CLEARBRIDGE VALUE \"A\" (USD) INC","BK4550":"红杉资本持仓","LU0868494617.USD":"UBS (LUX) EQUITY SICAV - US TOTAL YIELD SUSTAINABLE \"P\" (USD) ACC","BLK":"贝莱德","CMCSA":"康卡斯特","ADC.AU":"ACDC Metals Ltd","IE0009356076.USD":"JANUS HENDERSON GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION \"A2\" (USD) ACC","LU1571399168.USD":"ALLSPRING GLOBAL LONG/SHORT EQUITY \"IP\" (USD) ACC","REXR":"Rexford Industrial Realty Inc","VICI":"Vici Properties","BK4135":"资产管理与托管银行","ADC":"艾格里房产","BLK.AU":"Blackham Resources Ltd","IE00B3S45H60.SGD":"Neuberger Berman US Multicap Opportunities A Acc SGD-H","IE0004445239.USD":"JANUS HENDERSON US FORTY \"A2\" (USD) ACC","LU0053666078.USD":"摩根大通基金-美国股票A（离岸）美元","PEP":"百事可乐","TTE":"道达尔","LU0082616367.USD":"摩根大通美国科技A（dist）","IE00B19Z3B42.SGD":"Legg Mason ClearBridge - Value A Acc SGD","IE00B1XK9C88.USD":"PINEBRIDGE US LARGE CAP RESEARCH ENHANCED \"A\" (USD) ACC","AEP":"美国电力","AAPL":"苹果","LU1914381329.SGD":"Allianz Best Styles Global Equity Cl ET Acc H2-SGD","AMT.AU":"ALLEGRA MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES","BK4507":"流媒体概念","LU0353189763.USD":"ALLSPRING  US ALL CAP GROWTH FUND \"I\" (USD) ACC","BRK.B":"伯克希尔B","WTRG":"Essential Utilities, Inc."},"translate_title":"我在四月的第三周买的股票","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"ADC":1,"WTRG":1,"VICI":1,"TTE":1,"REXR":1,"PEP":1,"CMCSA":1,"BLK.AU":1,"BLK":1,"AEP":1,"AAPL":1,"ADC.AU":1,"AMT":1,"AMT.AU":1,"US3Y.BOND":0.9,"BRK.B":0.9,"US30Y.BOND":0.9,"US2Y.BOND":0.9,"US12M.BOND":0.9,"US10Y.BOND":0.9,"US5Y.BOND":0.9,"US6M.BOND":0.9,"US7Y.BOND":0.9,"US912797FS14.BOND":0.6,"US912796CX52.BOND":0.6,"US912797FH58.BOND":0.6,"US912797GB79.BOND":0.6,"US912797GK78.BOND":0.6,"US912797GL51.BOND":0.6,"US912797GW17.BOND":0.6,"US912797HE00.BOND":0.6,"US912797HG57.BOND":0.6,"US912797HH31.BOND":0.6},"content_text":"Job gains in March mainly came from immigrants and part-time employment.Real-time inflation is far lower than the CPI would lead you to believe and has been below the Fed's 2% target for the better part of a year.I give my admittedly unpopular view on the green tech trade with China and the benefits of international trade.The recent market correction has offered up numerous attractive investment opportunities for long-term dividend growth investors.   halbergman/E+ via Getty Images Grab a fork and spoon, tie your napkin round your neck, and scoot up to the table. Get ready for a feast of economic analysis and eminently buyable dividend stocks. I'll be your chef de cuisine. There's simply no time for hors d'oeuvres. Let's get straight to it. Here's what's on the menu:  A quick update on the labor market after March's job gains. Why inflation is not really \"running hot,\" \"stubbornly high,\" or \"sticky.\" A defense of trade with China that I fully expect to be unpopular. All the dividend stocks on my buy list for the third week of April.  March Update On The Labor Market In last week's missive, I explained that immigrants filling job openings is the primary cause of the surprisingly strong labor market and rebound in job growth since the Fall of last year.   Greg Daco via Twitter That statement spurred a surprising amount of controversy. But the data is uncontroversial. Native-born employment is nowhere near its pre-COVID growth trend level, due largely to a substantial wave of retirements.   YCharts, Modified By Author Employment among foreign-born workers, however, is back to its pre-COVID trend line, as you can see above. While native-born employment ticked up a bit in the March jobs report, it is still well below both its pre-COVID trend line and its pre-COVID peak number. Most of the job gains we've seen in recent months have come from those born outside the US. Moreover, most of these job gains over the last year or so have been part-time jobs. Full-time employment is flat YoY and is some 8 million jobs below where it would have been if the pre-COVID growth trend had persisted to today. The number of full-time jobs today is almost exactly the same as its level from mid-2019.   YCharts, Modified By Author Meanwhile, as you can see above, part-time employment has broken out and risen well above its pre-COVID range. In fact, the US has never had more part-time jobs than it has today. Make of this data what you will. No, Inflation Isn't \"Hot\" Or \"Stubbornly High\" The headline CPI rate ticked up to 3.5% in March from 3.2% the month before. Ruh roh. Why is inflation so hot and \"stubbornly high?\" Is inflation making a resurgence? Is this the 1970s all over again?! In short, no. The majority of consumer prices are still solidly in disinflationary mode. To save time, here's the bullet point summary: The main factor holding up the CPI is the backwards-looking shelter component that lags real-time changes in housing costs by about a year. CPI ex shelter was 2.3% in March, and headline CPI would've been 1.9% if you substituted the shelter component for an average of private sector housing price data from Zillow, Redfin, and Apartment List.   WisdomTree  The only three sub-components of the CPI showing inflationary increases in March were car insurance (up 22% YoY), auto maintenance & repairs (up 8.2% YoY), and electricity (up 5% YoY). Together, these three items make up only 6.6% of the CPI basket. Shelter, food, and non-food/energy commodities (together accounting for over 2/3rds of the CPI basket) continued their disinflationary trends.    St. Louis Fed Disinflation doesn't mean deflation. Prices aren't going back to 2019 levels. They simply can't when the money supply is 35% higher. But this doesn't mean that inflation is still running hot or is reaccelerating or any of that nonsense. Corroborating this view is the third-party consumer price aggregator Truflation, which many (including myself) view as a far better measurement of real-time inflation than the CPI.   Truflation Recall my above point that if you substituted the CPI's lagged shelter component for an average of private sector housing price data, you'd get a March CPI rate of 1.9% instead of 3.5%. Well, Truflation shows that March's YoY inflation ranged from 1.8% to 2.2%. That's some pretty compelling corroboration, in my view. An Unpopular Defense of Trade With China Now I want to make the case for something I know will be unpopular: continuing to trade most goods, especially clean energy products like solar panels and batteries, with China. I've made this case before, and when I have, it has garnered a lot more criticism than praise. If you're among the critics, I welcome your criticism and counterarguments in the comments below. Let's have a respectful and constructive dialogue. Since Adam Smith and David Ricardo first espoused the idea of free trade, I just don't think anybody has come up with a really good economic argument against it. Decades ago, the pithy Milton Friedman gave a concise and incisive defense of free trade that, in my view, still stands up today. Free trade is exactly what it sounds like: the freedom of businesses in different nations to trade with each other. Businesses don't do it unless they believe it serves their interests. But it also happens to benefit consumers as well. Country A is able to produce one product more cheaply than Country B, and Country B is able to produce another product more cheaply than Country A. They trade with each other. Consumer prices go down significantly in both countries. Look at a chart of the prices of TVs in the US over time. Or clothing. Or toys. Or furniture. They've fallen significantly over the last several decades. It was expensive and inefficient to make those items in the US, and it was far cheaper to make them elsewhere in the world. \"Elsewhere\" has largely been China, which was long the US's largest trading partner until the recent trade war allowed Mexico to take the top spot. Americans bought clothes, electronics, toys, and other low-cost items from Chinese factories employing abundant cheap labor, while the burgeoning Chinese middle class bought various goods like soybeans, iPhones, Teslas, and oil & gas from the US. Data by YCharts Admittedly, jobs were lost in some American industries. For example, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) was an ailing textile manufacturer when it was purchased by Warren Buffett in the 1960s. Two decades later, the final textile operations of Berkshire Hathaway came to an end, throwing its thousands of erstwhile employees out of work. Why? Because it was too expensive to produce textiles in the US, so manufacturing moved overseas. But international trade produces domestic jobs, too. For example, Berkshire's largest holding today is Apple (AAPL), which directly employs some 80,000 Americans while indirectly supporting another ~2 million American jobs through its US-based suppliers and the app store. Apple derives 60% of its sales from outside the US and sells $20+ billion of its products to China every quarter. How many of those American jobs could be supported without free trade? As Friedman explained, Americans buying foreign goods sends dollars to foreign nations, and the foreign nations have to do something with those dollars. The most obvious thing to do is to buy something from American businesses like Apple! Yes, sadly, jobs were lost at American factories that couldn't compete with foreign producers. But jobs were gained in the American industries that began selling more goods and services to foreigners who now had more USD than they did before. Many advocates of protectionism lament that we don't make things here in the US anymore, which has caused the \"hollowing out\" of our economy. But we do still make things here in the US. Plenty of things. Just not clothes or TVs or most of the other inexpensive goods that we Americans take for granted. What we do manufacture here is mostly in highly automated facilities, not assembly line factories like the halcyon days. That's why US manufacturing output and employment have moved in opposite directions over the last three decades: Data by YCharts Perhaps the best part about free trade for countries that are net buyers of goods is that consumers can buy stuff for dramatically lower prices, freeing up money to spend in other ways and thereby boosting the economy. A major reason why an increasing share of GDP derives from services industries (overwhelmingly based in the US) is that goods have become cheap enough to allow this -- largely thanks to free trade. Green Tech Trade The most visible and controversial imports from China today are green tech products like solar panels and lithium batteries. Here are some of the basic facts about China's green tech industry:  Given China's huge mineral reserves and willingness to strip mine them, the Chinese government saw the Western world's aggressive push toward decarbonization as an opportunity to become the low-cost supplier of renewable energy products. With China's real estate sector grinding to a halt, the state capitalist country has sought other areas of investment in order to boost growth and employment.    Reuters  China invested $130 billion into its PV production industry in 2023. China has also invested heavily in the production of polysilicon, which is a critical input material to PV panels. China accounts for 80% of the world's solar panel supply. China's solar panel production costs fell 42% YoY in 2023 to 15 cents per watt on average and as low as 12 cents in some cases.    Wood Mackenzie  Because of the vast overproduction and overcapacity of Chinese solar PV panels, global PV prices are expected to stay low for years. The estimated PV production capacity coming online just in 2024 is expected to be sufficient to meet global demand through 2032. Similar levels of manufacturing overcapacity can be seen in the battery and EV spaces.  Janet Yellen recently made a trip to China to warn the Chinese against \"dumping\" their cheap goods into the US market, a practice that threatens to \"decimate\" fledgling US green tech manufacturing industries. Even some folks who otherwise like free trade agree with Yellen that what China is doing is unfair. Look at all the subsidies! How can our (*ahem* also heavily subsidized) green tech manufacturing industries compete with that? Milton Friedman called this a form of philanthropy. When a foreign government taxes its own citizens, uses that money to subsidize mass production of goods, and then sells those goods to Americans at ultra-low prices, what else would you call it? Here's the bottom line:  We need more electricity generation capacity to power the rise of AI-driven data centers, semiconductor manufacturing, EV adoption, electrification, crypto mining, and population growth. In the US, it takes roughly half as much time to construct utility-scale solar farms and stationary battery storage facilities as it does to build thermal power plants. Thus, the fastest and (thanks to Chinese overproduction) cheapest way to add generation capacity is via solar panels and lithium batteries. Why should American progress and prosperity be stalled in order to support uncompetitive domestic producers that are guaranteed to raise costs for everyone?  We don't need to produce everything ourselves. Only the Amish do that, and they sure as heck don't do it for economic reasons. What about the possibility of a, shall we say, kinetic conflict in the Pacific? Keep in mind three points:  US trade with China makes kinetic conflict less likely, especially when it comes to an industry in which the Chinese government has invested hundreds of billions of dollars and wishes to maintain employment. Preemptively decoupling trade assumes a kinetic conflict is inevitable, but many experts believe it is not at all inevitable. India will become the second-largest PV panel producer in the world by 2025 and will likely be able to produce PV panels at half or less the cost than we can in the US for the foreseeable future. If the stuff hits the fan, we in the US can always switch to Indian PV suppliers.  I've held forth on this topic long enough. The question I hope to leave you with is this: If China wishes to subsidize production of goods in order to maintain employment, why should Americans not benefit from this by buying those goods at ultra-low prices? To quote Milton Friedman, When anyone complains about unfair competition, consumers beware. That is really a cry for special privilege, always at the expense of the consumer. What we need in this country is free competition. Dividend Stocks I'm Nibbling On There are a handful of stocks I've been buying over the last few weeks that I plan to buy only in small amounts this week, primarily because I already have pretty sizable positions in them. While I don't mind concentration when my conviction level calls for it, I also want to devote most of my investable cash (mainly from a big chunk of dividends scheduled to hit my account on Monday) to the smaller positions I'm trying to build up. Here are the stocks I plan to buy in small doses this week:   Company Dividend Yield 5-Year Avg Div Growth Rate Rationale   Agree Realty (ADC) 5.25% 6% Best-in-class single-tenant retail portfolio, low debt, well-structured balance sheet, strong shareholder alignment   Brookfield Infrastructure (BIP, BIPC) 5.9% 6% Strong track record of capital allocation (10-14% ROIC annually), good alignment between shareholders and the parent/external manager, more conservative balance sheet than first appears   Clearway Energy Inc. (CWEN, CWEN.A) 7.4% >6% Strong sponsor that is co-owned by BlackRock (BLK) and TotalEnergies (TTE), well-structured balance sheet with 99% fixed-rate debt and no maturities until 2028, no external capital needs through 2026, sponsor is a buyer of cheap solar panels   Rexford Industrial (REXR) 3.5% >18% Owns and redevelops urban/suburban industrial properties in the most supply-constrained market in the US (SoCal), pristine and low-leveraged balance sheet, excellent record of growth   VICI Properties (VICI) 5.8% >7% Owns a portfolio of iconic and irreplaceable properties in the experiential space, multi-decade lease terms, 2-3% annual rent escalations ensuring steady organic growth, all 2024 debt maturities already refinanced   Click to enlarge These are all solid, consistent compounders of which I'm happy to keep accumulating shares at current prices. But they are already large positions in my portfolio. You can find fuller discussions about them in last week's article as well as the article for the first week of April and the last week of March. Dividend Stocks I'm Building There are several smaller positions in my portfolio that I'd like to build into larger positions. It'll take time, but I'll persist. 1. American Electric Power (AEP) AEP is a 100% regulated electric utility with service territories in the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States.   AEP March Presentation While the regulated electric utility business is somewhat boring on its own, what particularly excites me about AEP is its extensive portfolio of transmission & distribution infrastructure. The utility is the largest owner of transmission lines (long-distance, high-voltage power lines that transmit electricity) and one of the largest owners of distribution infrastructure (transformers and low-voltage lines connecting them to end-users). Over $27 billion of AEP's $43 billion 5-year capital spending plan is to expand its transmission & distribution portfolio. In a world where a lot more electric power generation capacity is going to have to come online to meet growing demand, the US will also need a lot more transmission infrastructure. And with population growth and construction at relatively high levels, the US will also need a lot more electricity distribution infrastructure. Best of all, AEP's transmission & distribution holding company enjoys the highest regulated ROE of its various business segments at a 10.7% ROE compared to the overall average of 8.8%. These trends are major tailwinds for AEP and give me confidence in the utility's ability to meet or exceed its target EPS and dividend growth rate of 6-7% per year.   AEP March Presentation A 4.2% dividend yield (as I write this) combined with 6-7% dividend growth makes for a very appealing DGI proposition. 2. American Tower (AMT) AMT is primarily a wireless infrastructure REIT with a portfolio diversified across US towers, international towers, and the US-based CoreSite data center business. As I explained in previous weeks, AMT has a long history of strong capital allocation, having consistently generated around 9% returns on invested capital over the last decade. Given its strong cost of capital (weighted average interest rate of 3.5% as of the end of 2023), management's ability to consistently generate these strong returns has resulted in consistent compounding of cash flows and dividends. With a payout ratio in the low 60% territory, AMT has plenty more room for dividend hikes at or slightly above its AFFO per share growth rate for the foreseeable future. Best yet, AMT is cheap. Since converting to a REIT at the beginning of 2012, AMT has rarely been this lowly valued. Data by YCharts This chart shows price to cash from operations, which is a decent approximation of adjusted funds from operation (\"AFFO\"). AMT's AFFO multiple is currently around 17.4x, near its lowest point over the last 12 years. AMT's 3.6% dividend yield combined with estimated dividend growth between 5-10% per year going forward strikes me as a winning formula for DGIers. 3. Comcast Corp (CMCSA) CMCSA is a multi-media and entertainment behemoth that owns cable networks and movie studios, provides residential broadband access, and operates theme parks like Universal Studios Florida. On that last point, CMCSA has recently invested heavily into a new park in Orlando, Florida called Epic Universe that is schedule to open in 2025. The core, legacy business is called \"Connectivity & Platforms,\" which generates about 2/3rds of CMCSA's total revenue. The flagship brand here is Xfinity, the #1 provider of broadband/WiFi in the US. In today's world, WiFi has to be among the most recession-resistant services in the entire economy. We do everything today through the Internet.   CMCSA January Presentation About 1/3rd of revenue comes from \"Content & Experiences,\" including the cable TV networks, movie studios, and theme parks. Plenty of growth opportunities lurk in these segments of the business. Likewise, the balance sheet is very strong with 97% of debt fixed-rate at a weighted average duration of 16 years and a weighted average interest rate of 3.6%.   CMCSA January Presentation CMCSA also generates a ton of free cash flow. In 2023, it generated $13 billion in FCF, up about 10% YoY in FCF per share. This stock was admittedly a better buy during the latter months of 2022, but in my opinion, it is still a good buying opportunity today at a 7.8% FCF yield. Data by YCharts With a ~30% earnings payout ratio and a 15-year dividend growth record, I am confident in CMCSA's ability to keep growing earnings, FCF, and the dividend. Capital allocation regularly generates an ROIC of 9-11%. The 3.1% dividend yield may not be terribly exciting, but dividend growth in the neighborhood of 6-9% as far as the eye can see is pretty appealing. 4. PepsiCo (PEP) As Jussi Askola and I explained in a recent article for High Yield Investor, PEP boasts arguably the strongest portfolio of snack and beverage brands in the staples universe, including Frito-Lay, Quaker, Gatorate, and Pepsi. It also has some of the fastest growing brands in the \"better for you\" category.   PEP Presentation Other than consumer staples in general not getting much love this year, the market seems to be worried that once use of hunger-suppressing GLP-1 drugs reaches critical mass, sales of junk food will take a significant hit. Maybe, but count me skeptical. Most of PEP's investments targeted toward the future consumer are in the \"better for you\" category, either healthier versions of its existing brands or up-and-coming brands explicitly marketed as healthy. Users of GLP-1 drugs may seek out these \"better for you\" products as part of their weight loss journey. PEP has a long history of smart capital allocation, exemplified by its past-three-year median ROIC over 14%. Data by YCharts You don't become a Dividend King with a 52-year dividend growth track record without being a consistently good capital allocator and having sustainably strong assets and brand power like PEP has.   PEP Presentation PEP's dividend yield of 3.2% is near the top end of its historical range from the past decade, while its 10-year average dividend growth rate of 7% looks sustainable at around that rate going forward. This is exactly the kind of consistent compounder I want to build up in my portfolio while Mr. Market gives me the opportunity. 5. Essential Utilities (WTRG) I've pitched this regulated water and gas utility a few times recently. It has one of the largest and fastest growing water utility portfolios on the public markets, with a strong foothold in states like Texas that are gradually privatizing municipal water utilities.   WTRG Presentation The gist of my pitch for WTRG is that with its highly stable operations and ultra-strong, A- rated balance sheet, the fundamentals of the business have changed very little with the rise in interest rates. And yet, the market is dumping WTRG like its 1999 -- literally. The P/E ratio of WTRG has only been this low a few times over the past several decades, most notably in 1999-2000 when tech stocks were all the rage and boring water utilities garnered no interest. Data by YCharts Sound familiar? WTRG's dividend yield of 3.5% is rarely ever this high, and the company has a very consistent, 30+ year track record of raising that dividend every year at right around 7% annually, like clockwork.  With consistency like that, and a great margin of safety for a recession-proof business, WTRG is just my kind of boring.","kind":null,"is_publish_news":null,"is_publish_highlight":null,"is_publish_live":null,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":1},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.22.4","shortVersion":"4.22.4","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2427274100"}