These 3 Boring Stocks Can Be Beautiful
There’s absolutely nothing boring about making money, yet certain stocks that can offer steady gains tend to get overlooked by the majority of retail investors time and time again given their predictable businesses and slow-growth industries. While we are seeing some signs of life out of the technology and high valuation names after a massive selloff to start the year, less-volatile stocks are likely still going to be a good area to focus on going forward. These companies often offer nice dividend payments, are financially stable, and fit well in almost any portfolio given their reliability.
Many of these “boring” stocks have been outperforming thus far in 2022 and could continue trending higher over the next few months and beyond. It never hurts to look at companies that don’t receive a lot of fanfare among investors and financial media, as they can help you diversify your holdings and get into less crowded trades. That's why we’ve put together the following list of 3 “boring” stocks to consider adding now. Let's take a deeper look below.
The leading American grocery store chain has been incredibly impressive in March following the company’s Q4 earnings release, and the fact that the stock has held its post-earnings gap suggests higher prices could be ahead. Kroger operates roughly 2,700 retail supermarkets and multidepartment stores, which includes well-known brand names like Kroger, Ralphs, Food 4 Less, Fry’s, Fred Meyer, City Market, and Harris Teeter. It’s also worth noting that about 82% of Kroger stores have pharmacies, while roughly half sell fuel.
Since the beginning of the pandemic,
Kroger has been prospering thanks to the strong demand for groceries. It’s a company that continues to capture market share from competitors thanks to low prices, private label brands, and strong analytics. The company recently beat FY 21 earnings estimates with diluted EPS of $3.68 on $137.9 billion in sales, which is impressive given that the company was dealing with supply chain issues, higher labor costs, and inflation. With a decent dividend yield, strong digital sales growth, and a low beta value of 0.42, Kroger is certainly worth a look given how volatile markets have been this year.
While farm, construction, and lawn equipment might not be as exciting as electric vehicles and cloud computing, that shouldn’t stop you from looking at
Deere & Co as the stock attempts to break out from a year of consolidation. Deere manufactures and distributes equipment like tractors, loaders, combines, backhoe loaders, crawler dozers, excavators, and more, which are likely to be in very high demand going forward. Consider factors like increasing U.S. Federal infrastructure spending, rising crop prices, and residential building activity bouncing back from the impacts of the pandemic for great reasons to consider adding shares.
In February, Deere posted better-than-expected Q1 earnings with EPS of $2.92, beating consensus estimates by $0.64, and the company’s management raised its full-year outlook following the release. The dividend payout for Deere was also recently boosted by 17%, which is another sign of financial strength for investors to note. The bottom line here is that Deere is an ideal industrial stock to consider adding at this time, particularly with the stock breaking out to new all-time highs and crossing the $400 per share mark.
Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE: LLY)
Biopharmaceutical stocks can be very exciting during their early growth stages but tend to provide more slow and steady gains after they have been around for a few decades. That’s the case with Eli Lilly and Co, a major drug firm that focuses on developing and manufacturing therapies to treat pain, diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. With top products like cancer drugs Alimta and Verezenio, diabetes drugs Jardiance and Trulicy, and immunology drugs Taltz and Olumiant, investors can count on Eli Lilly to generate stable cash flows that support the stock's 1.37% dividend yield.
There’s also a lot to like about this company’s pipeline of new drugs, including candidates with blockbuster potential like immunology drug mirikizumab and Alzheimer’s drug donanemab.
Eli Lilly recently posted decent Q4 results including adjusted EPS growth of 8% on revenue growth of 8% to $8 billion, and it’s clear that investors were impressed by the report given how the stock has rallied since the release. Eli Lilly shares are hitting new all-time highs and could be a very strong name to consider adding on dips going forward.