Take This Stock for a Spin

Few great dividend-paying stocks look more attractive than appliance titan Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR). The company is going through some tough times at the moment. In particular, the trade war building between the United States and other markets, such as China, has pushed up the company’s steel and aluminum costs, which in turn have caused it to raise its prices in the United States. This is Whirlpool’s most lucrative market, and higher costs and weaker sales from consumer sticker shock have hurt its sales and profitability.

But Whirlpool has been down this road many times before. After all, it is a cyclical company. Its management understands how to keep costs in check and shift its focus to higher-growth regions. In recent years, the company has been buying its way into Asia, which offers a double-digit annual growth opportunity.

While sticker shock in the U.S. is a genuine concern, it tends to last for only a few quarters. Historically, the U.S. economy has expanded in 86 percent of the months since the end of World War II, and that bodes well for a brandname appliance maker.

Fundamentally, dipping your toes in the water appears to make a lot of sense. With a forward-looking priceto-earnings (P/E) ratio recently of just 7.6, Whirlpool is as cheap as it’s been in a decade. It also offers a dividend recently yielding 3.7 percent.