Dividend Vision Lists
Consumer Staples Dividend Stocks
A curated list of the consumer staples companies behind the products people buy in every economy — food and beverages, household goods, and personal care — a sector rich in long-running dividend growers.
Updated July 2026 · 25 companies
DV Scorecard
Our proprietary snapshot of this list — averages and standouts, computed from the companies below. Not investment advice.
Consumer staples are the products people keep buying no matter what the economy is doing — food, drinks, cleaning supplies, and personal care. That steady demand is why the sector is a classic home for defensive, dividend-paying stocks, and this page gathers the major names in one place.
The list spans packaged-food and beverage makers, household and personal-care companies, tobacco, and the large retailers and distributors that move these goods. The sector is unusually rich in long-tenured dividend growers — many Dividend Aristocrats and even a few Dividend Kings come from consumer staples — because reliable cash flows support decades of steady raises.
Dividend Vision's angle is durability: how safe each payout looks through our Distribution Safety Score, how the yields and growth compare, and what to watch in a mature, slow-growth sector. Figures refresh live from our data pipeline on every build, and nothing here is investment advice.
Consumer Staples Dividend Stocks
Live data joins from our pipeline on every build — click any header to sort, or open a ticker for the full analysis. We never hard-code yields, prices, or returns.
| Ticker | Company | Role | Yield | Div growth (1y) | Safety | Fwd P/E | Market cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMT | Walmart Inc. | Retail | 0.86% | +16.5% | 100 | 39.4 | $909.1B |
| COST | Costco Wholesale Corporation | Consumer Staples | 0.57% | +16.2% | 96 | 41.7 | $417.3B |
| KO | The Coca-Cola Company | Beverages | 2.52% | -26.5% | 99 | 26.1 | $350.9B |
| PG | The Procter & Gamble Company | Consumer Products | 2.86% | — | 99 | 21.3 | $349.2B |
| PM | Philip Morris International Inc. | Tobacco | 3.25% | -17.4% | 97 | 22.5 | $300.8B |
| PEP | PepsiCo, Inc. | Beverages & Snacks | 4.20% | +4.9% | 100 | 16.3 | $187.3B |
| MO | Altria Group, Inc. | Tobacco | 6.01% | +36.1% | 97 | 13.0 | $123.9B |
| MDLZ | Mondelez International, Inc. | Snack Foods | 3.41% | +2.2% | 99 | 20.3 | $78.3B |
| CL | Colgate-Palmolive Company | Personal Care & Home Care | 2.27% | — | 100 | 23.7 | $74.4B |
| KDP | Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. | Consumer Staples | 3.04% | +15.8% | 100 | 13.6 | $42.1B |
| ADM | Archer-Daniels-Midland Company | Agricultural Processing | 2.50% | +2.3% | 99 | 17.3 | $41.4B |
| SYY | Sysco Corp. | Consumer Staples | 2.68% | +2.7% | 100 | 16.8 | $39.1B |
| KVUE | Kenvue Inc. | Consumer Staples | 4.45% | 0.0% | 89 | 16.5 | $36.4B |
| KMB | Kimberly-Clark Corporation | Personal Care Products | 4.77% | +2.5% | 99 | 14.5 | $36.0B |
| HSY | The Hershey Co. | Consumer Staples | 3.31% | +21.1% | 97 | 21.1 | $34.8B |
| KHC | The Kraft Heinz Company | Packaged Foods | 6.29% | -2.9% | 97 | 12.9 | $30.7B |
| EL | The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. | Consumer Staples | 1.70% | -7.1% | 71 | 26.5 | $29.7B |
| CHD | Church & Dwight Co. Inc. | Consumer Staples | 1.24% | +7.1% | 100 | 26.3 | $23.2B |
| STZ | Constellation Brands Inc. | Consumer Staples | 3.10% | +4.3% | 98 | 11.4 | $22.7B |
| TSN | Tyson Foods Inc. | Consumer Staples | 3.55% | +3.3% | 100 | 13.1 | $20.3B |
| GIS | General Mills, Inc. | Packaged Foods | 6.56% | 0.0% | 99 | 12.5 | $20.3B |
| HRL | Hormel Foods Corporation | Packaged Foods | 4.66% | -0.7% | 97 | 16.6 | $14.0B |
| MKC | McCormick & Company, Incorporated | Spices & Seasonings | 3.77% | -10.7% | 100 | 17.1 | $13.9B |
| CLX | The Clorox Co. | Consumer Staples | 5.12% | -34.4% | 99 | 15.4 | $11.6B |
| TAP | Molson Coors Beverage Co. | Consumer Staples | 4.80% | +14.1% | 99 | 8.7 | $7.7B |
Why this list matters
Consumer staples trade growth for consistency, which is why the sector anchors so many income and retirement portfolios and tends to hold up better in downturns.
Who it's for
- Income and retirement investors who want steady, defensive dividends
- Conservative investors seeking lower volatility than the broad market
- Dividend-growth investors drawn to the sector's many Aristocrats and Kings
- Anyone comparing a staples stock they own against its peers on yield and safety
Benefits
- Demand for everyday essentials is relatively insensitive to the economic cycle
- The sector holds many of the market's longest dividend-growth streaks
- Strong brands and pricing power can support steady cash flows and payouts
Risks
- Slow growth — these are mature businesses, and total return leans on the dividend
- Input-cost inflation and private-label competition can squeeze margins
- Shifting consumer preferences can erode once-dominant brands over time
- Some names carry meaningful debt from acquisitions, which can pressure the payout
- Tobacco and certain categories face regulatory and secular-decline risk
What to watch
- How well the dividend is covered by earnings and cash flow — start with the Distribution Safety Score and payout ratio
- Pricing power and volume trends, which drive a staples company's durability
- Debt levels, especially where a company has made large acquisitions
- Category exposure — a diversified food maker differs from a single-category name
How we rank these investments
This page is a curated universe, not a ranked buy list — the table sorts on any column. These are the dimensions we surface and what each tells you.
- Distribution yield. The current dividend as a share of price. Mature staples often yield more than the broad market; the retailers here tend to yield less.
- Dividend growth. How fast the payout is rising. Long, steady growth streaks are common in this sector and often a better signal than the headline yield.
- Distribution Safety Score. Dividend Vision's proprietary read on how durable a payout looks, from the same one scorer used across the site.
- Valuation. Forward P/E and related measures put the modest growth expectations in context for these defensive names.
- Total return. Price change plus dividends. For staples the dividend contributes a larger share of total return than for most sectors.
- Business role. Packaged food, beverage, household and personal care, tobacco, or retail/distribution — each has a different growth and margin profile.
- Liquidity & size. Market capitalization and trading volume. Larger, more liquid names are easier to trade and tend to be less volatile.
- Payout ratio. The share of earnings paid as dividends — the cushion behind the next raise, and one to watch on debt-heavy names.
- Distribution frequency. How often a dividend is paid. Consumer staples companies almost always pay quarterly.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a consumer staples stock?
This page uses a curated view of the consumer staples sector: packaged-food and beverage makers, household and personal-care companies, tobacco, and the large retailers and distributors of these goods. It tracks 25 of them with live data.
Why are consumer staples considered defensive?
People keep buying food, drinks, and household essentials in any economy, so demand is relatively stable through downturns. That steadiness supports reliable revenues and dividends, which is why the sector is called defensive.
Are consumer staples good dividend stocks?
The sector is one of the richest sources of long-running dividend growers, including many Dividend Aristocrats and a few Kings. Whether any specific name fits a given investor is a personal decision; sort the table by yield or Safety Score to compare.
Which consumer staples are Dividend Kings or Aristocrats?
Several of the longest-tenured dividend growers are staples companies. Rather than list them here, see our Dividend Kings and Dividend Aristocrats pages, which are filtered to those exact streak criteria and refresh with live data.
Do consumer staples stocks grow?
Growth is typically slow and steady rather than explosive — these are mature businesses. That's the trade-off for their consistency, and it's why total return in the sector leans more on the dividend than on price appreciation.
What are the main risks for staples stocks?
Key risks include input-cost inflation squeezing margins, private-label competition, shifting consumer tastes eroding brands, and acquisition-related debt. Tobacco and some categories also face regulatory and secular-decline pressures.
What is the Distribution Safety Score?
It's Dividend Vision's proprietary measure of how durable a company's dividend looks, scored from 0 to 100 using the same single model applied across the site.
How is this different from a consumer staples ETF?
An ETF bundles many of these names into one fund. This page lets you see and compare the individual companies, each linking to a full analysis, with a live DV Scorecard summarizing the group.
How often is this list updated?
The membership is curated, while yields, prices, market caps, and Safety Scores refresh from our data pipeline on every build. The figures reflect the most recent data run.
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