Investopedia: Solid Consumer Companies For Patient Dividend Investors

Dividend investing gets a bad rap, but the reality is that there is no one way to long-term investment success. Some people simply do not have the time or the inclination to play the peripatetic game of momentum investing. For investors who are content to let investment theses play out over a span of years, here are some high-quality consumer-focused names to consider. 

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) 
Take a look at a chart of Wal-Mart's stock price over the past ten or eleven years and you may as well be looking at a map of Kansas. Outside of a few excursions, the stock has stayed relatively steady between $45 and $55 for most of the past decade. During that same period, though, the shares have returned nearly $7 in dividends, so long-term investors are not exactly empty-handed.

Wal-Mart is not likely to ever excite anyone with its growth again, but the company is caulking up some of its gaps. The company is working to repair relationships with suppliers and pay a bit more attention to what customers would like to see in the stores.

At the same time, the company is expanding relatively aggressively overseas. With a shockingly consistent record of mid-teen returns on total capital, a large foreign opportunity and a nearly 3% yield, Wal-Mart can be a core holding in conservative portfolios. (For more, see Remember The Discounters.)

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