5 Dividend Paying Companies With No, Or Very Little Debt (Part 1)

Summary
We will take a look at five companies that pay a dividend and currently have little or no debt on their balance sheets.
By looking at the debt of a company we can locate some very financially healthy businesses.
Although the debt of companies is a good starting point, it isn't always the sign of a healthy business.
At the end I'll pick my favorite from the five.
Recently out of curiosity I began looking for dividend paying companies that carried no debt (or very little) on their books. Not every company that I found would fit into my portfolio but several have found a place on my watch list and could prove to be quality investments over a long time period. I'll take a look at five at a time and whittle my list down to three or four that could fit into my retirement portfolio and hopefully add them throughout 2016.
A company may have no debt for many reasons, not all are a positive for an investor. From an investor's stand point right away we see the benefit of a company having no debt because if you choose to invest in that company you are not incurring any share of their debt. By remaining skeptical and cautious we must ask ourselves how they came to have no debt. It could be that their products sell so well they generate enough revenue to cover all their expenses. On the other end of the spectrum it could be that the company is doing so poorly that nobody is willing to lend them money. In no way am I saying that debt is bad for a... Read more