Down 12-24% From 52-Week Highs, 3 Great Dow Dividend Stocks to Buy Now

THE Dow Jones Industrial Average is known for containing 30 industry-leading components from various stock sectors. But even Dow Jones stocks can suffer sharp declines.

Dow Components Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX)And Home Depot (NYSE: HD) are down 12-24% from their 52-week highs and are all down year-to-date despite gains in broader indices like the Dow, S&P 500And Nasdaq Composite Index.

Here’s why all three dividend stocks stand out as solid buys for patient investors.

Salesforce is a balanced purchase

Investors may have been surprised when growth stock Salesforce was added to the Dow in August 2020. At the time, Salesforce was sporadically profitable and didn’t pay a dividend. But Salesforce has matured a lot as a company in recent years. Today, it’s no longer focused solely on revenue and reinvesting everything back into the business. The company is highly profitable, announced its first-ever quarterly dividend earlier this year, and is buying back a ton of its stock.

Companies like Salesforce reward their employees with stock compensation, which can dilute existing shareholders. Over the past decade, Salesforce’s outstanding share count has increased by 54%. However, the company has been buying back shares in recent years to offset the stock compensation and has reduced its share count by 1% over the past three years.

Salesforce was inspired by MicrosoftMicrosoft paid out a record $10.7 billion in stock compensation over the past 12 months, up 123% from five years ago, but managed to reduce its outstanding shares by 2.6% during that period through share buybacks. It takes a very profitable company to execute that kind of strategy. But if done right, it can help companies recruit and retain top talent without diluting shareholders.

Salesforce stands out as one of the most balanced tech stocks on the market. The dividend yield is just 0.7%, but then again, the company just started paying dividends. The forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio is just 24.5, suggesting that Salesforce is quite cheap relative to its historical valuation. The biggest red flags for Salesforce are that growth has slowed and the company hasn’t done a great job of monetizing artificial intelligence. However, it would be a mistake to overlook Salesforce’s industry-leading position and long-term growth runway in enterprise software.

There are plenty of other tech stocks that are hot, but many of them are expensive. Salesforce stands out as a good buy if you’re looking for a more reasonable valuation and a company that isn’t betting on full-throttle growth, but instead focuses on profitability and returning capital to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends.

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Chevron Remains a Top Pick in the Oil Industry

Despite good results, Chevron is hovering around its lowest level in 52 weeks. Oil prices have something to do with it.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude Oil Price – US…