The Retiree's Dividend Portfolio - John's May Update: When It Becomes Hard To Find A Good Deal

In last month's article regarding John's retirement accounts, The Retiree's Dividend Portfolio - John's April Update: Focus On The Blended Yield, I mentioned that I was extremely interested in Valero Energy (VLO) and Parker Hannifin (PH) as two potential candidates worth increasing John's exposure to. The VLO position was increased to a total of 150 shares but we ultimately chose to not add any shares of PH.
With a new month upon us and a stock market that has rallied (at least in some regards) I wanted to review my watchlist to see what other candidates might be worth adding to John's portfolio. VLO and PH are still attractive but they have bumped off of 52-week-lows.
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With decently-sized holdings already concentrated in these two stocks, I wanted to see if there was anything else out there that might be worth considering for John's retirement portfolio. My primary goal is to identify beaten-down stocks that have defensive characteristics in a poor economic environment.
Conagra (CAG) Alliance Data Systems (ADS) Eaton Vance (EV) Over the last three years, only EV's stock price has moved higher than where it initially began.
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All three stocks are also currently trading well under their TTM historical P/E ratios.
Data by YCharts
Upon further research, ADS is the least safe option of the group even though it appears to have significantly more upside if management can convey that its earnings will remain strong... Read more