Stock Spotlight: Procter & Gamble

With all the top rated stocks we have featured in our Weekly Stock Spotlight, it comes as a bit of a surprise that we have not yet covered one of the better stocks in one of the better industry groups for investors: Procter & Gamble (PG@PG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating).

We have noticed over the past several weeks that certain industry groups continue to show up at the top of our PowerRatings. These include industry groups like Utilities (both Electric and Diversified), Major Drug Manufacturers, and Personal Products, have consistently had the sort of high Industry PowerRatings that we encourage active investors and position traders to look in when searching for stocks.

Procter & Gamble belongs to that latter industry group, Personal Products, which has an Industry PowerRating of 8. Our research into industry group behavior between 1995 and 2007 shows that industries with PowerRatings of 8 have provided average annualized returns of more than 20%. Compare this to the performance of the average industry group, which produced average annualized returns of approximately 14.61%.

It its own right, Procter & Gamble has a Long Term PowerRating of 9. Stocks with PowerRatings of 9 have been among the most reliable and best performing stocks since 1995 - bested only by our highest rated, "10" stocks. We found that not only were stocks with PowerRatings of 9 higher one year later more than 79% of the time. But also these stocks with PowerRatings of 9 tended to average more than 18% gains in a year's time.

Both of these figures compare favorably with the average stock, which was higher one year later less than 68% of the time and tended to average gains of 12-13% after on year.

In its most recent earnings announcement at the end of April, Procter & Gamble reported quarterly earnings that were up 8% over a year ago. The company also raised the low end of its profit forecast for 2008. The company managed to beat analyst estimates by one penny.

Stocks like Procter & Gamble are often referred to as "recession beaters." This is because they provide goods or services that customers are likely to continue buying regardless of the condition of the economy. Razor blades for shaving, household cleaners and detergents are among the products that Procter & Gamble provide and are the sorts of products that will see sustained demand whether or not the economy weakens or recovers over the course of the year.

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David Penn is Senior Editor of PowerRatings.net.