Founded in 1901 (but with roots going back to 1849), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) is one of the world’s largest pharmacy retailers and drug distributors, operating over 18,000 pharmacy stores around the world. Following its 2014 merger with European pharmacy giants Boots, Walgreens changed its name to Walgreens Boots Alliance and became the largest retail pharmacy, health, and daily living destination across the U.S. and Europe. The company operates a portfolio of retail and business brands, including Walgreens, Duane Reade, and Boots stores, as well as increasingly global health and beauty product brands, such as No7, Soap & Glory, Liz Earle, Sleek MakeUP, and Botanics. Besides its retail stores, Walgreens owns distribution centers that deliver drugs to pharmacies, doctors, health [...]

Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) is one of North America's largest midstream master limited partnerships, with approximately 50,000 miles of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL), crude oil, refined products, and petrochemical pipelines. The company also owns a number of storage facilities, processing plants, and terminals. Enterprise’s network of assets helps move different types of energy and fuel from one location to another for upstream exploration and production (E&P) companies. Enterprise makes most of its money from fees it charges E&P customers for its transportation and storage services.

General Motors (GM) was founded in 1897 in Detroit, Michigan, and is one of the largest carmakers in the world. The company sold 8.4 million vehicles globally in 2018, earning 8.9% global market share and 16.7% share of its core U.S. market. General Motors has embarked on a multi-year strategy to redesign and expand its truck and crossover portfolio, which is more profitable and growing faster than passenger cars. On a retail basis, close to 80% of GM's U.S. sales are now pickup trucks and crossovers, and management plans to significantly reduce the number of sedans it sells in the U.S. going forward.

Campbell Soup (CPB) has had a "Borderline Safe" Dividend Safety Score since closing its $6.1 billion acquisition of snack company Snyder's-Lance in March 2018. While this deal improved Campbell's diversification and overall growth profile, it also resulted in a significant spike in the company's financial leverage. Source: Simply Safe Dividends These situations will almost always put a company's dividend safety profile in our "Borderline" risk category. High leverage reduces a company's margin for error, and cutting the dividend is an easy lever to pull in order to strengthen the balance sheet. Campbell's use of leverage especially raised the stakes since the company's organic sales growth remains weak. The firm's namesake soup business in the U.S. continues losing market share to [...]

Magellan Midstream Partners (MMP) is one of America’s largest and oldest MLPs and specializes in refined petroleum products. The MLP's pipeline systems are utilized by energy companies such as Marathon, Valero, HollyFrontier, and Phillips 66. Magellan transports products such as gasoline and diesel fuel from refineries, helping them eventually reach gasoline stations, truck stops, airports, and other end users. Magellan owns the longest refined products pipeline system in the country, extending over 9,700 miles from the Gulf Coast and covering more than a dozen states across the central U.S. The MLP also owns more than 40 million barrels of storage capacity at 53 connected terminals, over 3,000 miles of ammonia and crude oil pipelines, and six marine storage terminals.

Uniti Group (UNIT), a wireless infrastructure REIT, has sported a "Very Unsafe" Dividend Safety Score and a double-digit yield for years. In our April 2018 thesiswe made the following remarks: "Uniti Group appears to be cheap for a reason and is a very high risk dividend stock. The company's payout could be reduce substantially at any time in order to redirect the cash flow to the REIT's much needed diversification efforts... Uniti's high yield is due to some major problems that the REIT has not yet shown an ability to overcome. The company's reliance on just one distressed tenant has caused its own credit ratings to be slashed to low-grade junk status, and Uniti now faces an inability to raise any equity capital [...]

Consolidated Edison (ED) was founded in 1884 and serves as a regulated electric and gas utility to the New York metro areas and Westchester County, NY. Con Edison's principal business segments are: Con Edison of New York (88% of 2018 earnings): provides electric service to approximately 3.5 million customers and gas service to about 1.1 million customers in New York City and Westchester County. The company also provides steam service in parts of Manhattan for heating purposes. Orange & Rockland (4%): provides electric service to more than 300,000 customers in southeastern New York and adjacent areas of northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania and gas service to over 100,000 customers in southeastern New York and adjacent areas of eastern Pennsylvania. Con Edison [...]

Kraft Heinz (KHC) reported a bombshell earnings report this evening, validating investor concerns over the company's struggling turnaround. The bad news included: A $15.4 billion non-cash impairment charge related to the value of its Kraft natural cheese, Oscar Mayer cold cuts, and Canadian retail businesses An investigation by the SEC into the firm's accounting policies related to its procurement area 2019 guidance calling for a 10% decline in EBITDA, missing analyst estimates by nearly 15% A 37% dividend cut to accelerate deleveraging and position the company for more acquisitions to continue consolidating the industry

Founded in 1920, PPL (PPL) is a pure-play regulated gas and electricity utility serving 7.9 million customers in the United Kingdom (U.K.), 1.4 million in Pennsylvania, and 1.3 million in Kentucky. The majority of PPL’s earnings are generated in the U.K., where regulators have historically allowed for superior returns on equity compared to most U.S. utilities. Here's how the firm's profits break out by region:

Kellogg (K) shares have slumped over 20% since September, sending the stock's dividend yield up to about 4%, its highest level in 19 years. With Kellogg's earnings expected to decline close to 10% over the next year, plus the company's somewhat elevated debt load, let's take a closer look at Kellogg's dividend safety and long-term outlook.