Credit Suisse's 14 Ultimate Defensive Stock Picks

Procter & Gamble (PG)

Company Profile: The company is the world's largest consumer-products manufacturer. Its brands include: Tide laundry detergent, Charmin toilet paper, Pantene shampoo, Cover Girl cosmetics and Iams pet food. In the past decade, P&G has doubled sales from developing markets, and acquired and integrated Wella and Gillette, and sold its pharmaceutical and coffee businesses.

P&G has stopped hiring full-time employees for this fiscal year, a company spokeswoman told Bloomberg today, confirming a report in the Financial Times Deutschland. "We have generally met our hiring goals for this fiscal year, and therefore we are not currently recruiting and hiring," Christine Wever said in an e-mail to the news organization. The FT cited slower-than-expected growth, as the impetus for the hiring freeze.

2011 Return: up 4.5%

Dividend Yield: 3.22%

---

Kraft Foods (KFT)

Company Profile: The company is the the second-largest packaged-food company in the world, but its management recently announced its intention to break up the firm into a global snacks business and North American grocery brands. It sells snacks, beverages, cheese and convenient meats, with a product portfolio that includes brand names such as Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House, Jell-O, Chips Ahoy and Kool-Aid.

2011 Return: up 19%

Dividend Yield: 3.18%

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next › Last »