Buy 9 Sustainable Dividend Dogs Of Barron’s Top 100

Foreword

This article is based on 100 top sustainable companies based on Calvert Research and Management’s annual review of more than 230 Environmental, Social and Governance [ESG] performance indicators, such as workplace diversity, data security, and greenhouse-gas emissions, as reported in the February 26, 2024 edition of Barron’s weekly.

How Barron’s determined their list

“To build Barron’s seventh annual ranking of the most sustainable companies, Calvert Research and Management started with the 1,000 largest publicly traded companies by market value, then ranked each by how it performed for five key constituencies: shareholders, employees, customers, community, and the planet.

Specifically, Calvert looked at more than 230 ESG performance indicators, such as workplace diversity, data security, and greenhouse-gas emissions.

Based on these indicators, Calvert assigned a score of zero to 100 in each stakeholder category. Then it created a weighted average of the categories for each company, based on how financially material each category was for its industry peer group.

To make the list, a company had to be rated above the bottom quarter in each of the material stakeholder categories. If it performed poorly in any key category that was financially material, it was disqualified.

The top 100, ranked by sustainability, appear in the table at the bottom. Those were the best performers of 2023 reported in this in 2024 report.”

– Barron’s editors

Any collection of stocks is more clearly understood when subjected to yield-based (dogcatcher) analysis. These 100 publicly traded Most Sustainable dogs are perfect for the dogcatcher process. Here is the April 5 data, focused on 76 dividend payers. The full list of 100 is posted in the Afterword at the tail of this article.

Happily, 9 of the 76 dividend-paying Sustainable companies live up to the Dogcatcher ideal of showing annual dividends from a $1K investment, exceeding their single share prices. As of 4/5/24, they are NextEra Energy Partners (NEP), Avangrid (AGR), Regions Financial (RF), Citizens Financial Group (CFG), Franklin Resources (BEN), The Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC), The Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG), Exelon Corp. (EXC), and HP Inc. (HPQ). Many first-time investors regard this condition as a buy signal or, at least, a look-closer invitation.

Actionable Conclusions (1-10): Analysts Estimated 10.36% To 29.86% Net Gains For Ten Top ESG Companies To April 2025

Five of ten top 2023 ESG company stocks by yield were among the top ten gainers for the coming year based on analyst 1-year target prices. (They are tinted gray in the chart below). Thus, the yield-based forecast for these ESG top dogs was graded by Wall St. Wizards as 50% accurate.

Estimated dividends from $1000 invested in each of the highest-yielding stocks plus their aggregated one-year analyst median target prices, as reported by YCharts, supplied the data points. Note: target prices from less than two analysts were not counted. Thus, ten probable profit-generating trades projected to April 5, 2025 were:

Barron’s Top Ten Sustainable Dogs By Net Gains

NextEra Energy Partners was projected to net $300.71, based on the median of target estimates from 16 analysts, plus dividends, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility equal to the market as a whole.

Mondelez International (MDLZ) was projected to net $227.78, based on the median of target price estimates from 25 analysts, plus annual dividend, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 44% less than the market as a whole.

Eversource Energy (ES) was projected to net $167.17, from dividends, plus the median of target price estimates from 17 analysts, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 42% less than the market as a whole.

The Interpublic Group of Companies was projected to net $163.13 based on a median of target price estimates from 12 analysts, plus dividends, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 13% greater than the market as a whole.

Citizens Financial Group was projected to net $156.53, based on dividends, plus the median of target price estimates from 19 analysts, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 38% more than the market as a whole.

Omnicom Group (OMC) was projected to net $131.99 based on dividends, plus the median of target estimates from 12 brokers, less transaction fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 3% less than the market as a whole.

Air Products and Chemicals (APD) was projected to net $128.47, based on the median of target prices from 22 analysts, plus annual dividends, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 19% under the market as a whole.

Regions Financial was projected to net $119.41, based on dividends, plus the median of target price estimates from 24 analysts, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 22% over the market as a whole.

Ingredion (INGR) was projected to net $117.83, based on dividends, plus the median of the target price estimates from 8 analysts, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 18% less than the market as a whole.

The Kraft Heinz Co. was projected to net $110.63, based on dividends, plus the median of target price estimates from 22 analysts, less broker fees. The Beta number showed this estimate subject to risk/volatility 33% less than the market as a whole.

The average net gain in dividend and price was estimated at 16.24% on $10k invested as $1k in each of these ten stocks. These gain estimates were subject to average risk/volatility 9% under the market as a whole.

The Dividend Dogs Rule

Stocks earned the “dog” moniker by exhibiting three traits: (1) paying reliable, repeating dividends, (2) their prices fell to where (3) yield (dividend/price) grew higher than their peers. Thus, the highest yielding stocks in any collection became known as “dogs.” More precisely, these are, in fact, best called, “underdogs.”

50 Barron’s ESG Dogs Showed April Target Gains

50 Barron’s ESG Dogs Reveal March Yields

Actionable Conclusions (11-20): 10 Top Barron’s ESG Dogs By Yield For March

Top yield ten March 2024 Barron’s ESG stocks represented four of eleven Morningstar sectors.

The first of three utilities representatives placed first, NextEra Energy Partners [1]. The other two placed fourth and fifth, Avangrid [4], and Eversource Energy [5].

Two consumer cyclical representatives placed second, and seventh: Hasbro (HAS)[2], and Best Buy (BBY)[7].

Then four financial services stocks occupied the third., sixth, eighth and ninth places: Citizens Financial Group [3], Regions Financial [6], Franklin Resources [8], and Prudential Financial (PRU) [9].

Then the lone consumer defensive stock occupied tenth place, The Kraft Heinz Co. [10], to complete the top ten April 2024–25 Barron’s ESG stocks by yield.

Actionable Conclusions: (21-30) Top Ten Barron’s ESG Dividend Dogs Showed 9.24%-22.28% Upsides While (31) Three Lowly Down-siders Slumped -0.64%-8.65% in April

To quantify top dog rankings, analyst median price target estimates provided a “market sentiment” gauge of upside potential. Added to the simple high-yield metrics, analyst median target price estimates became another tool to dig out bargains.

Analysts Forecast A 18.72% Advantage For The 5 Highest Yield, Lowest Priced Of Ten 2023 Barron’s ESG Dividend Stocks Come April 2025

Yield (dividend / price) results provided by YCharts did the ranking for these ten dividend April Barron’s ESG stocks.

As noted above, top ten dividend Barron’s ESG dogs screened 4/5/24 showing the highest dividend yields represented four of eleven in the Morningstar sector scheme.

Actionable Conclusions: Analysts Predicted 5 Lowest-Priced Of The Top Ten Highest-Yield Barron’s ESG Dividend Dogs (32) Delivering 13.13% Vs. (33) 11.06% Net Gains by All Ten Come April 2025

$5000 invested as $1k in each of the five lowest-priced stocks in the top ten dividend Barron’s ESG kennel by yield were predicted by analyst 1-year targets to deliver 18.72% more gain than $5,000 invested as $.5K in all ten. The third lowest-priced selection, NextEra Energy, was projected to deliver the best net gain of 30.07%

The five lowest-priced top-yield Barron’s ESG dividend dogs as of April 5 were: Regions Financial; Franklin Resources; NextEra Energy; Citizens Financial Group; Avangrid, with prices ranging from $20.15 to $36.03.

Five higher-priced Barron’s ESG dividend dogs as of March 11 were: Kraft Heinz; Hasbro; Eversource; Best Buy; Prudential, whose prices ranged from $37.06 to $115.71.

The distinction between five low-priced dividend dogs and the general field of ten reflected Michael B. O’Higgins’ “basic method” for beating the Dow. The scale of projected gains based on analyst targets added a unique element of “market sentiment” gauging upside potential. It provided a here-and-now equivalent of waiting a year to find out what might happen in the market. Caution is advised, since analysts are historically only 20% to 90% accurate on the direction of change and just 0% to 15% accurate on the degree of change.

The net gain/loss estimates above did not factor in any foreign or domestic tax problems resulting from distributions. Consult your tax advisor regarding the source and consequences of “dividends” from any investment.

Afterword

If somehow you missed the suggestion of the stocks primed to buy at the start of the article, here is a repeat of the list at the end.

Happily, 9 of the 76 dividend-paying ESG companies live up to my Dogcatcher ideal of paying annual dividends from a $1K investment, exceeding their single share prices. As of 4/5/24, they are: NextEra Energy, Citizens Financial, Avangrid, Regions Financial, Kraft Heinz, Franklin Resources, Exelon, Interpublic Group, and HP. Many first-time investors regard this condition as a buy signal or, at least, a look-closer invitation.

Current vs. Fair-Price Charts

Six of the top-ten Barron’s ESG shares are priced less than the annual dividends paid out from a $1K investment. Therefore, the dollar and percentage differences between current and fair prices are detailed in the top chart. The middle chart compares those six fair priced with all ten at current prices, and the fair pricing of all ten top dogs conforming to the dogcatcher ideal is shown in the bottom chart.

Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable Companies As Ranked For 2024-25

Stocks listed above were suggested only as possible reference points for your Barron’s ESG stock purchase or sale research process. These were not recommendations.