20 Safest Consumer Goods Stocks

 | Apr 16, 2013 07:49AM ET

Today I'm screening for the safest dividend stocks” within the consumer goods sector.

Consumer goods stocks are one of my favorite sectors because of their strong relationship to the end-consumer. As a result, sales and earnings are less volatile than in other sectors. In addition, most of them are great long-term dividend plays. From among 390 stocks in the sector, 193 pay dividends.

Below is a list of the best yielding large cap consumer dividend stocks with a volatility lower than the overall market.

It’s not surprising that the big tobacco companies are among the top results. You can hate them or not but they are still some of the safest dividend stocks available. Below are the top 20 results, three are High-Yields and eleven are recommended to buy.

Companhia de Bebidas das Americas - AMBEV (ABV) has a market capitalization of $122.39 billion. The company employs 46,503 people, generates revenue of $13.561 billion and has a net income of $4.359 billion. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $6.556 billion. The EBITDA margin is 48.34 percent (the operating margin is 43.17 percent and the net profit margin 32.14 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 8.92 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 16.07 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 34.58 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $1.59. Last fiscal year, the company paid $0.92 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 24.62, the P/S ratio is 8.85 and the P/B ratio is finally 9.53. The dividend yield amounts to 4.63 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.98.