Should You Forget Coca-Cola? Why These Unstoppable Stocks Are Better Buys.

Key Points

• Coca-Cola is a Dividend King and an industry-leading beverage giant, but its stock price is a bit expensive today.

• Hormel is also a Dividend King, and the stock appears cheap.

• Hershey is an industry leader in the confectionery space, and the stock looks cheap.

The stock market is full of great companies, but just being a great company isn't enough to make a great stock that is worth buying. That's a sentiment that Benjamin Graham, a famed value investor and one of the key influencers of Warren Buffett's investment approach, repeated often. It's also a sentiment that investors should keep in mind when looking at Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) stock.

If you are checking out that beverage giant with an eye on possibly investing, you might want to consider deeply out-of-favor food makers Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) and Hershey (NYSE: HSY), instead. Here's why.

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Coca-Cola stock is great. It's also expensive

Coca-Cola is one of the largest beverage companies on Earth. It has an iconic brand name heading up a large portfolio filled with other strong brands. The reach of the business is vast, its marketing skills are industry-leading, and it has the scale to both invest in R&D and to buy up smaller brands. It is, without a doubt, a great business. That's highlighted by its status as a Dividend King, with over 60 years worth of annual dividend hikes behind it. There's just one problem.

Image source: Getty Images.

Right now, Coca-Cola's price-to-sales, price-to-earnings, and price-to-book-value ratios are all above their five-year averages. The stock's 2.9% dividend yield is near the low end of its 10-year yield range. While it would be hard to describe buying Coca-Cola stock as a massive mistake, you are paying up for the privilege these days. And you can probably do better.

Hormel is trying to get back on the growth path

Hormel is a packaged food maker with a focus on protein-related products. Like Coca-Cola, it is a Dividend King, which suggests that the business is built to survive both good times and bad. Right now is a bad time, as the company is having difficulty pushing through price increases even as it faces rising costs. And avian flu and a slow rebound in demand in China (from COVID-related shutdowns) have been ongoing issues, too. Meanwhile, the recently acquired Planters business has been improving, but after a rough start. So there are a lot of headwinds here that have Wall Street worried.

That said, the company keeps upping the dividend, which is probably best viewed as a sign that management and the board believe that things will improve in the future. Meanwhile, the 3.8% dividend yield is near the highest levels in the company's history. And its P/S, P/E, and P/B ratios are all below their five-year averages. Where Coca-Cola looks expensive, Hormel and its portfolio of iconic brands look cheap.

Hershey is getting hammered by cocoa costs

In some ways, confectionery giant Hershey is performing fairly well. Indeed, sales are expected to grow in 2025. The problem it faces is on the cost side, where an epic increase in the price of cocoa is expected to lead to a huge earnings decline. Given that Hershey's most important products are chocolate-based, this is a big issue, and Wall Street is right to be worried. However, management is working to control what it can and has a long history of managing through commodity price volatility. It is likely the company muddles through this period, too.

Which brings up the opportunity for those who are confident that this over 100-year-old company is built to survive. The dividend yield is currently around 3.2%, which is near the highest levels in the company's history. While the P/S ratio is about at its five-year average, the P/E and P/B ratios are both notably below their longer-term averages. Taken as a whole, Hershey's stock looks cheap, too.

There are opportunities that offer yield and value

Coca-Cola is a great company, but it just isn't the best value right now. If you want to own great companies that are also good values, you'll need to keep looking. In the consumer staples sector, two of the most attractive opportunities, mixing company quality and value, are Hormel and Hershey. If you do a deep dive, you might end up with one of these unstoppable stocks in your portfolio today.

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Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Hershey and Hormel Foods. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Hershey. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.