McDonald’s Corporation (MCD), The Procter & Gamble Company (PG), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): Dividend Stocks to Own Forever

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Yielding around 3.1%, $100 billion market cap McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is a solid option for income oriented investors looking for a stock to own forever.

Medical Giant

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is a $250 billion market cap health care giant. It has operations in the consumer products, medical devices, and pharmaceutical sectors and is a leader in each. The company’s shares yield around 3% today, largely because of recent weakness in its consumer products and drug businesses.

It appears that the company is getting past those issues, having fixed manufacturing and recall problems on the consumer side and offering up a pipeline of solid new drugs. Indeed, after stagnating coming out of the recession, sales have headed higher in each of the past two years. The bottom-line, meanwhile, is below where it was in 2010, but has headed higher in each of the last two years.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)’s dividend has been increased annually for decades. Income investors looking for a one-stop health care company should look no further than this industry giant with a yield of around 2.8%.

Building a Core

Long-term income investors should have a core portfolio of great companies. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) all offer investors decent yields, long histories of returning value to shareholders, and massive and lasting businesses. With dividends hovering around 3%, now is a good time to start building positions in each. More patient types, however, might add them to a watch list for a market sell-off and yields closer to 4%.

Dividend stocks can make you rich. It’s as simple as that. While they don’t garner the notoriety of high-flying growth stocks, they’re also less likely to crash and burn. And over the long term, the compounding effect of the quarterly payouts, as well as their growth, adds up faster than most investors imagine.

The article Dividend Stocks to Own Forever originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Reuben Brewer.

Reuben Brewer has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, and Procter & Gamble. The Motley Fool owns shares of Johnson & Johnson and McDonald’s. Reuben is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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