Preferred Apartment Communities (APTS) was founded in 2011. The REIT focuses on multifamily buildings (e.g. apartments), student housing properties, office buildings, and grocery-anchored retail centers. It also originates real estate loans to developers, receiving interest payments and the option to purchase finished projects.

Founded in 1883, Kroger (KR) is America's second largest grocer behind only Walmart with over $120 billion in annual sales. The company operates over 2,700 supermarkets, many with pharmacies and fuel centers on premise. Kroger's stores are in 35 states and serve more than 11 million shoppers each day. In addition to traditional grocery shopping, [...]

Costco (COST) was founded in 1976 and pioneered the membership warehouse business model. The company is one of the world’s largest sellers of groceries, alcohol, diamonds, electronics, prescription drugs, tires, gasoline, and even travel services. Costco operates over 775 store locations, mostly in North America.

On September 5, Meredith (MDP) issued weak guidance for the year ahead. The company's leverage profile and payout ratio will now remain elevated for longer than we expected, and execution risk has also increased. As a result, we downgraded Meredith's Dividend Safety Score from Safe to Borderline Safe. Meredith's dividend still seems unlikely to be cut for now and the [...]

Meredith (MDP) is one of the nation's oldest media and publishing companies, having been founded in 1902 as an agricultural publisher. At its core, Meredith provides consumers with content by leveraging print, digital, mobile, video, and broadcast TV media platforms. Nationally, the firm reaches over 180 million American consumers. Advertising accounts for a little over [...]

Earlier this year, we published a note reviewing Macy's dividend safety profile and struggles turning around its brick-and-mortar retail business. In the note, we said that Macy's Borderline Safe Dividend Safety Score was predicated in part on the company's turnaround efforts not stalling more than they already have. Unfortunately, Macy's turnaround efforts have appeared to do just that. Despite [...]

In December 2015, Dow (DOW) and DuPont (DD) announced plans to merge, then break up into three independent companies. The idea was to create larger, more focused businesses by combining the areas of overlap in their complementary portfolios. Here's a look at each company's 2015 revenue mix. As you can see, Dow and DuPont each had large [...]

Philip Morris International (PM) surprised investors last week when the firm confirmed it was in discussions with Altria (MO) about a potential all-stock, merger of equals. After all, these two tobacco giants had separated just over a decade ago when Altria spun off Philip Morris International in 2008. The idea of a potential reunion has not been received well [...]

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) was founded in 1855 and is one of North America's largest banks. The firm's revenue is fairly balanced between net interest income, or lending businesses (57% of sales), and non-interest income operations (43% of revenue is from non-lending businesses such as insurance policies, card services, service charges, asset management, credit fees, brokerage [...]

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL) has been in business since 1969 and operates a chain of more than 650 company-owned restaurants located throughout the U.S. Cracker Barrel's country-themed, full-service restaurants offer diners a variety of breakfast (24% of sales), lunch (39%), and dinner (37%) foods with meals costing about $10 on average.  Each restaurant [...]

In 2008, Altria (MO) spun off Philip Morris International (PM) with hopes of unlocking value from its faster-growing international business, which was underappreciated by investors who worried about the decline in U.S. cigarette consumption and the threat from tobacco litigation. Now, more than a decade later, both companies announced on August 27 that they are exploring a [...]

Home Depot (HD) began operating in 1978, 32 years after Lowe’s (LOW) was founded. Despite its later start date, Home Depot is now the world’s biggest home improvement retailer with over $100 billion in annual sales. The company has more than 2,200 retail stores and maintains the number one market share position in the U.S., [...]

Founded in 1832, Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) is one of Canada's largest and most diversified banks. The firm provides a broad range of products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.   The bank, commonly referred to as Scotiabank, generates about 56% [...]

Founded in 1911, Eaton (ETN) is an industrial conglomerate that provides a wide range of energy-efficient products and systems. The company's solutions help customers manage power across electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical applications. Eaton operates in five main business segments:  Electrical Products (33% of sales, 36% of profits): consists of electrical components, industrial components, residential products, single [...]

Incorporated in 1968, CenturyLink (CTL) started off as a regional telecom company. Thanks to a series of large acquisitions over the years, CenturyLink is now one of America’s largest telecom services provider with about 10 million customer connections.Today CenturyLink operates through two business units: Business Segment (75% of revenue): provides internet, hybrid networking, cloud connectivity, security [...]