Flowers Foods (FLO) was founded in 1919 and has grown to become the second-largest producer of packaged bakery foods in the country with over 40 operating bakeries. The company primarily sells breads, buns, rolls, tortillas, and snack cakes, and some of its key brands include Nature’s Own (the number one bread in the U.S.), Tastykake, Wonder Bread, Whitewheat, Dave’s Killer Bread, and Canyon Bakehouse. Flowers Foods also bakes store-branded generic products.The vast majority of the company's sales are in fresh breads and rolls, with snack foods and frozen products making up the rest of revenue. Approximately 85% of Flowers’ sales last year were Direct Store Delivery, in which fresh products are delivered directly to customers (supermarkets, mass merchandisers, restaurants, etc.) [...]

Founded in 1969, Sysco (SYY) is the largest global distributor of food, essentially acting as a middleman between food producers and retail consumers. The company provides food products and related services to more than 600,000 customer locations, including restaurants (62% of sales), healthcare facilities (9%), schools and governments (8%), hotels and travel companies (8%), and other foodservice customers (13%). The products Sysco sells are diversified as well and include fresh and frozen meats (20% of revenue), canned and dry products (17%), frozen fruits, vegetables, and bakery items (15%), poultry (10%), dairy products (10%), fresh produce (8%), paper products (7%), seafood (6%), beverages (3%), janitorial products (2%), equipment (1%), and medical supplies (1%).

In business since 1905, C.H. Robinson (CHRW) is one of the largest third-party logistics companies in the world. The firm acts as a middleman in the transportation industry, helping connect companies that need to ship goods with cost-effective transportation providers that have capacity available via trucks, railroads, airlines, and ships. C.H. Robinson doesn’t own hard transportation assets such as trucks and is instead a service company that utilizes people and technology to create transportation and supply chain advantages for its customers. The company has more than 124,000 customers and maintains relationships with over 76,000 carriers and suppliers, who it purchases shipping capacity from on behalf of its customers. C.H. Robinson takes of cut of each transaction and in return helps [...]

STAG Industrial (STAG) is a small but fast-growing industrial REIT that went public in 2011 but has existed since 2003. The company owns about 400 industrial properties which are located in 38 states and leased to over 350 tenants. The vast majority of its single-tenant properties are warehouses, distribution centers, and light manufacturing facilities.  STAG focuses on buying warehouses in secondary markets such as Spartanburg, South Carolina; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Secondary markets account for 51% of rental revenue.

With roots dating back to 1951, Accenture (ACN) is one of the largest professional services companies in the world and provides a range of end-to-end services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital (marketing, analytics, mobility), technology infrastructure, and operations. Accenture essentially develops and implements technology-driven solutions to improve its clients’ productivity and efficiency. Serving more than 40 industries, Accenture delivers virtually every business function needed by its customers. The company's clients include 92 of the Fortune Global 100 and over 75% of the Fortune Global 500. 

Founded in 1968, Waste Management (WM) owns the largest network of recycling facilities, transfer stations, landfills, and processing plants in North America. The company makes money by entering into contracts with customers to collect, transport, process, store, and dispose of their waste. In just 30 years of operation, the company has built an impressive and diverse base of more than 22 million customers spread across municipal, residential, commercial and industrial segments in the U.S. and Canada.  During 2018, WM’s biggest customer represented just 1% of its annual revenues. The public sector (municipal customers) accounts for 21% of the firm's revenue, and the largest private industries are retail and offices at 10% each. 

Shares of Iron Mountain (IRM) are down more than 7% today following a downgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Funk.  Citing a sharp slump in the price of recycled paper, Funk believes that Iron Mountain will be forced to reduce its 2019 guidance, which calls for 2-2.5% organic sales growth and EBITDA growth of about 3-4%. The REIT next reports results on August 1, so it will be a few weeks until we have a formal update from management. However, the market is clearly anxious about this risk. 

In June 2015 our Long-term Dividend Growth portfolio initiated a position in MSC Industrial (MSM) at a price of $69.81 per share. MSM shares closed at $69.55 today, virtually unchanged from the date of our purchase and matching the price they traded at eight years ago in July 2011. MSC Industrial hasn't lost us money, but the company's performance has been a major disappointment given the broader market's strong rally. Not even news of a 19% dividend increase today could help the stock overcome another weak earnings report, which pushed shares lower by about 4%.

AbbVie (ABBV) announced plans to acquire Allergan (ANG) in a deal valued at more than $80 billion, including assumed debt.  As a result of this planned transaction, we are downgrading AbbVie's Dividend Safety Score from a rating of Safe to Borderline Safe. This isn't necessarily a reason to sell the stock if you own it but simply reflects the company's increased financial risk profile, at least over the short term. A dividend cut still seems unlikely, but the deal will cause AbbVie's leverage to rise significantly, driving the downgrade. Management reaffirmed its commitment to the current dividend and plans to deleverage aggressively in the years ahead. As the company's balance sheet improves and it demonstrates continued traction with its larger growth platform of drugs to [...]

Walt Disney founded his namesake company in 1923, and since then the business has gone on to become one of the most iconic brands ever created. Today Walt Disney (DIS) is a leading entertainment company with about $60 billion in revenue.  The media conglomerate is highly diversified and vertically integrated, with four major business segments. Here are the company's sales and profits through the first half of fiscal 2019: Media Networks (38% of sales, 47% of profits): TV programming (ABC TV and cable channels like A&E, History, Lifetime and ABC Family, ESPN network), radio (radio Disney, ESPN radio network), eight television stations. In total the company has about 100 Disney-branded television channels, which are broadcast in 34 languages and 162 countries. [...]