Extending the 16.4% rise in 2025, the S&P 500 has roared 13.3% higher since the start of the year as of this writing. While investors are undoubtedly happy with the market’s performance, plenty recognize that the party can’t go on forever and believe a downturn is right around the corner.
Savvy investors know that market pullbacks are inevitable, and while they may be painful in the short term, a little planning can help fortify your portfolio. Fortunately for those committed to strengthening their holdings, there’s a leading consumer goods stock hanging on the discount rack.
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A prodigious portfolio of household brands
Long gone are the days when the company solely operated as a soap and candle business. Nowadays, 189 years later, Procter & Gamble (PG -0.78%) is a consumer goods powerhouse with widely recognized brands across family care, grooming, baby care, and beauty (among others).
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During market downturns, people will curb many spending habits — cutting back on trips to their favorite restaurants and purchases of luxury items, for example — so they can more easily afford staples like baby diapers, laundry detergent, and personal hygiene products. Investors often choose consumer staples stocks to fortify their portfolios during periods of economic slowdown.
For this reason, the stock is especially alluring, since P&G owns many of the leading brands found in homes — from baby care names like Luvs and Pampers to grooming brands such as Gillette and Venus to laundry leaders like Tide and Downy.
This Dividend King is a royal choice to supplement your passive income stream
In addition to those who recognize P&G’s allure as a blue chip stock that can fortify one’s portfolio, P&G is renowned among income investors as a Dividend King, a company that has raised its dividend for more than 50 consecutive years. In fact, P&G is one of the leaders among Dividend Kings, stringing together a streak of 70 straight years of dividend hikes. As if that’s not impressive enough, consider that the company has paid dividends for the past 136 years.
Skeptics who need further reassurance that P&G is a compelling dividend stock to weather a market downturn will find their concerns assuaged by management’s clear commitment to balancing the company’s financial health with rewarding investors. From 2016 through 2025 — a period during which there have been several market downturns — P&G has maintained its dividend-paying streak while averaging a conservative 75.7% payout ratio.
Now’s the time to put P&G stock in your shopping cart
Whether it happens in the coming weeks or further in the future, there’s no denying that a market downturn will eventually occur. Unnerving as it may be, it’s part and parcel of investing, so the challenge is how best to prepare for it. Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies to implement, and investing in reliable dividend stocks like P&G is certainly one.
With P&G stock trading at 22.1 times trailing earnings, a discount to their five-year average price-to-earnings of 25.2, today is a great time to consider loading up with the stock hanging on the discount rack.
