Coca-Cola: Building Your Best Long Term Stocks Portfolio with This Dividend Aristocrat

When you commit to buying and holding a stock indefinitely, the decision demands careful analysis and conviction. If you’re serious about constructing a best long term stocks portfolio that can weather market cycles, dividend-paying companies with proven track records deserve your attention. Coca-Cola emerges as a compelling candidate—a business that combines strong operational momentum, an exceptional shareholder reward history, and what appears to be a fair entry valuation in today’s market.

Rock-Solid Business Performance Outshining Peers

Among the universe of consumer staples companies, Coca-Cola stands apart for reasons beyond its iconic brand. The beverage giant possesses distribution capabilities, marketing prowess, and innovation infrastructure that rival any competitor in its sector. Its scale also enables it to function as an industry consolidator, using strategic acquisitions to rapidly expand its brand portfolio and market reach.

What truly distinguishes Coca-Cola as a best long term stocks candidate, however, is its current execution. While the broader consumer staples sector grapples with headwinds from evolving consumer preferences, Coca-Cola is pulling ahead. In the third quarter of 2025, the company’s organic sales climbed 6%, with adjusted earnings expanding at the same pace. To contextualize this strength, compare that performance to a direct competitor: organic sales grew just 1.3% with adjusted earnings declining 2%.

This performance differential matters for long-term investors. Coca-Cola operates in an industry recognized for its resilience across economic cycles, meaning dividend payments tend to remain stable even during downturns. For conservative dividend investors seeking the most reliable additions to their forever portfolio, Coca-Cola’s current momentum is far more reassuring than chasing higher-yielding alternatives facing operational headwinds.

Dividend History: 63 Years of Consistent Shareholder Returns

The company’s approach to shareholder rewards reveals institutional commitment to rewarding patient capital holders. Coca-Cola’s board has maintained an unbroken streak of annual dividend increases spanning 63 consecutive years—putting the company in a five-way tie for the longest such streak in the market. This Dividend King status represents a meaningful moat for best long term stocks investors: companies this committed to returning capital consistently demonstrate financial discipline and confidence in future cash generation.

For those building a forever portfolio, anchoring positions in companies with 50+ years of consecutive dividend increases provides a meaningful margin of safety. These businesses have proven their ability to navigate recessions, industry disruptions, and competitive pressures while still prioritizing shareholder returns. Coca-Cola sits at the apex of this exclusivity.

At 2.9%, the current dividend yield handily exceeds the S&P 500’s paltry 1.1% offering. While the broader consumer staples sector averages 2.7% yield, Coca-Cola’s combination of yield plus operational excellence creates an asymmetric risk-reward profile rarely found in best long term stocks available today.

Valuation Sweet Spot: Fair Price for Entry

One of the market’s persistent challenges is that superior businesses rarely trade at bargain prices. Coca-Cola typically commands a premium valuation reflecting its quality, and genuine buying opportunities surface infrequently.

The current environment presents a rare exception. Due to sector-wide skepticism toward consumer staples, investors have grown overly cautious with Coca-Cola specifically. The stock’s price-to-earnings and price-to-book value metrics have both descended below their five-year average levels. Meanwhile, the yield and price-to-sales ratio remain roughly consistent with historical norms—suggesting the market is pricing in weakness that operational performance hasn’t validated.

For dividend-focused investors hunting for best long term stocks that offer value, this disconnect creates opportunity. The combination of fair valuation, fortress-like business fundamentals, and a decades-long commitment to growing dividends presents an attractive entry point for those with multi-decade time horizons.

The Case for Long-Term Buy-and-Hold Strategy

Building a forever portfolio requires discipline in avoiding emotional decisions driven by short-term volatility. Coca-Cola’s 63-year dividend growth streak, combined with its proven resilience through multiple economic cycles, suggests the company will likely be increasing that dividend through numerous market cycles ahead.

Investors focused on best long term stocks should recognize that Coca-Cola checks virtually every box: a business performing better than peers, a valuation offering fair entry, a legendary dividend track record, and an industry structure favoring market-leading players. While no investment comes with guarantees, this combination rarely presents itself in companies of this scale and quality.

The Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor analyst team maintains that the most compelling investment opportunities often reside among businesses overlooked by momentum-chasing markets. Whether Coca-Cola ultimately makes their latest top-10 list remains to be seen, but for patient capital seeking the characteristics of best long term stocks, this beverage titan deserves serious consideration.