Online expansion will keep these two on top

Article Excerpt

Amazon.com’s deal to buy Whole Foods has hurt the share price of these two competing retailers. However, we feel recent investments in their online businesses will help spur their earnings—and dividends. Amazon doesn’t offer a dividend, although we cover it in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter focused on aggressive investments. WAL-MART STORES INC. $76 (New York symbol WMT; Conservative Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 3.0 billion; Market cap: $228.0 billion; Dividend yield: 2.7%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.walmart.com) is the world’s biggest retailer, with 11,723 outlets in 28 countries. Wal-Mart has increased its annual dividend rate every year since 1974. It last raised its quarterly dividend by 2.0% with the March 2017 payment. Investors receive $0.51 a share, for an annual rate of $2.04. It yields 2.7%. In the quarter ended April 30, 2017, sales rose 1.4%, to $117.5 billion from $115.9 billion a year earlier. However, without the impact of currency-rate changes on its international operations, sales rose 2.5%…