Coca-Cola may be the best defensive stock on the planet, with the simplest business model and a brand known everywhere from New York City to tiny villages in Asia. x.com 

Coca-Cola is the ultimate safe haven, a holding that stabilizes and protects a portfolio. Since 2008 the best spot to add has been at or under the 200-week moving average; the test of that level at $60 in November 2024 signaled value with a margin of safety. Shares have since reached $84, a 39% climb in 20 months, plus a 2.5% dividend. x.com 

Coca-Cola's retained earnings do little for shareholders when management does not distribute much of the growth. At 27 times earnings, a 2.3% yield with no expected large dividend hikes, special dividend or meaningful buybacks makes look-through earnings a poor basis for the price: EPS rose about $1 in five years while dividends rose only 52 cents. x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com 

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, JPMorgan Chase and UnitedHealth are stocks worth holding forever. They aren't the flashiest names and won't deliver the best returns, but they offer consistency and can be counted on to keep growing for decades. x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com 

Durable dividend stocks such as Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Realty Income, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Sherwin-Williams, Visa and Federal Realty can become a lifetime income machine. The key is owning businesses so durable that investors sleep well while dividends and compounding do the work, rather than chasing yield. x.com 

Coca-Cola's $20 billion-plus tax liability under litigation is significant for a low-margin business; a billion-dollar tax penalty helped sink VF Corp. The stock has lagged the S&P 500 even from the best entries of the past 15 years, having run out of growth since globalization peaked, and its 2.67% dividend is weak against safe, growing alternatives. Spinning off and reacquiring bottlers has handed the alpha to others. x.com 

Coca-Cola's business is healthy, but its headline quarter overstates it, so the stance is bullish-neutral. Global volume rose 5%, free cash flow hit $6.9B year to date, and the dividend is covered at about 72% of free cash flow. But EPS grew 16% while currency-neutral comparable EPS grew 9%, underlying margin expansion was 24bp rather than about 90, and Asia Pacific price/mix fell 9% to defend shelf space. The raised 9-10% EPS growth guide includes about 3 points of currency tailwind. x.com 

Qualcomm, Johnson & Johnson, Wendy's, IBM, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Caterpillar are steady dividend payers that pay investors to wait, in keeping with Warren Buffett's rule never to lose money. Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have raised their dividends for decades. Qualcomm licenses wireless patents nearly every phone maker pays for, IBM leads in quantum computing research, and Caterpillar is a growing supplier of power generation for data centers. x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  … Show more

Coca-Cola looks like a great funding short, since nothing makes it immune to the risks that battered its staples peers. GLP-1 drugs, store brands, new entrants and supply-chain inflation should hit it too, and non-sugar drinks only slow the U.S. decline, though international has held up better. About 2% revenue growth is thin support for 25x earnings while peers sit at 2008 valuations; it could fall to 15x unless the other staples rebound dramatically. x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  … Show more

PepsiCo is an easy buy for a long-term dividend portfolio because its diversified brands can adapt to shifting health trends. Gatorade, soda, snacks and energy drinks are categories people will never stop consuming, and the recent Poppi purchase shows that adaptability, making PepsiCo preferable even to McDonald's. @TheRonnieVShow notes the stock sits on a 17-year trendline that has held since 2009. x.com  x.com