20 Best Dividend Stocks From The Consumer Services Sector

 | Jan 12, 2013 04:24AM ET

Here's my recommendation for the best stocks for January 2013 from the consumer services sector. The sector has 888 companies listed of which 348 pay dividends and 213 are recommended to buy now.

The total market capitalization of all stocks in this sector amounts to USD 56.93 trillion. An average stock from the sector has a dividend yield of 1.72 percent and a P/E of 20.10. The best yielding industries are Consumer Services and Electronic Stores, followed by Computer Wholesalers.

I made a screen of the 20 most recommended and higher capitalized stocks with positive dividend payments. Two high-yields emerged.

CVS Caremark (CVS) has a market capitalization of $63.96 billion. The company employs 202,000 people, generates revenue of $107.100 billion and has a net income of $3.488 billion. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $7.898 billion. The EBITDA margin is 7.37 percent (the operating margin is 5.91 percent and the net profit margin 3.26 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 15.52 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 26.32 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 9.22 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $2.98. Last fiscal year, the company paid $0.50 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 17.23, the P/S ratio is 0.60 and the P/B ratio is finally 1.75. The dividend yield amounts to 1.75 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.76.