3 Industry Stalwarts You Can Buy and Forget About

Don't have a lot of time to follow stocks and want some safe options for your portfolio? Three stocks that are big names within their respective industries and that can make for excellent long-term investments are UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL). These businesses have excellent track records, they pay their shareholders dividends, and their futures remain bright.

Healthcare and insurance are two relatively safe places of the economy for investors to focus on. There's an ongoing need for both of those services and one company that gives you the best of both worlds is health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group. It has also made for a fantastic growth stock, having doubled in a span of just five years.

At a market capitalization of around $500 billion, it's one of the most valuable healthcare companies in the world. The company doesn't have the greatest bottom line as it has averaged a profit margin of just 6% over the trailing 12 months. But UnitedHealth generates over $300 billion in revenue on an annual basis, which means that at a 6% margin, it can still generate more than $18 billion in profit each year. Over the past four quarters, its earnings have been higher than that, at $21.7 billion.

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Source Fool.com