Morningstar

Consumer Defensive

Companies engaged in the manufacturing of food, beverages, household and personal products, packaging, or tobacco. This sector also includes companies that provide services such as education and training services.

Featured

After Earnings, Is Coca-Cola Stock a Buy, a Sell, or Fairly Valued?

Kristoffer Inton Aug 4, 2026

Procter & Gamble Earnings: Wisely Leaning on Brand Spending to Turn the Tide on Its Sales Trajectory

Erin Lash, CFA Jul 29, 2026

Coca-Cola Earnings: Strong Momentum Continues in Second Quarter, Boosted by World Cup

Kristoffer Inton Jul 28, 2026

The Best Companies to Own

Tori Brovet Jul 14, 2026

Consumer Defensives: Firms Must Adapt to Win at the Shelf Amid Intense Macro Uncertainty

Erin Lash, CFA Jul 9, 2026

Latest Company Reports

Largest Stocks in the Consumer Defensive Sector

Screen With Investor

1-Day Chart	Name	Industry	Price	Morningstar Rating for Stocks	Capital Allocation	Economic Moat	Market Cap
	Walmart Inc WMT	Discount Stores			LOCK\|j@L>b#	LOCK\|@m	$901B
	Costco Wholesale Corp COST	Discount Stores			LOCK\|gZy!fPy	LOCK\|%&s	$419B
	Coca-Cola Co KO	Beverages - Non-Alcoholic			LOCK\|<C<HFRG	LOCK\|lm	$372B
	Procter & Gamble Co PG	Household & Personal Products			LOCK\|CZf^!kgR	LOCK\|$^&	$338B
	Philip Morris International Inc PM	Tobacco			LOCK\|^!&S@Ct	LOCK\|^r	$290B
	PepsiCo Inc PEP	Beverages - Non-Alcoholic			LOCK\|<<!HJwmV	LOCK\|vl$	$189B
	Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV ADR BUD	Beverages - Brewers			LOCK\|H#%PlWd	LOCK\|qj	$159B
	Unilever PLC ADR UL	Household & Personal Products			LOCK\|B#bDn>Z	LOCK\|#?	$134B
	British American Tobacco PLC ADR BTI	Tobacco			LOCK\|Y<rSgsC	LOCK\|^rN	$122B
	Altria Group Inc MO	Tobacco			LOCK\|zBT	LOCK\|&!	$109B

After Earnings, Is Walmart Stock a Buy, a Sell, or Fairly Valued?

With increased traffic growth amidst macroeconomic pressures, here’s what we think of Walmart stock.

Brett Husslein May 27, 2026

Walmart Earnings: Digital Growth Anchors Margins Amid Stretched Consumers

We’ve raised our fair value estimate of Walmart stock.

Brett Husslein May 22, 2026

Target Earnings: Traffic Surges, but Recovery Still Demands Heavy Investment

We plan to raise our fair value estimate of Target stock.

Brett Husslein May 20, 2026

Is There More Bad News Ahead for This Already Struggling Industry?

Here’s why to watch the earnings reports from packaged foods companies this quarter.

David Sekera, CFA and Susan Dziubinski May 6, 2026

After Earnings, Is Coca-Cola Stock a Buy, a Sell, or Fairly Valued?

With marketing efforts paying off and a fruitful first-quarter holiday calendar, here’s what we think of Coca-Cola stock.

Kristoffer Inton May 5, 2026

Coca-Cola Earnings: Shares Fairly Valued as Marketing and Innovation Efforts Deliver Robust Growth

Coca-Cola’s focus on products across value and premium should help drive balanced growth as the year progresses.

Kristoffer Inton Apr 28, 2026

Procter & Gamble Earnings: Brand Investments Support Competitive Prowess

P&G shares ticked up and now trade near our fair value estimate.

Erin Lash, CFA Apr 24, 2026

Stock Sector Outlooks: Morningstar’s Top Q2 Picks Across the Market

Morningstar analysts provide their sector outlooks and views on the best stocks to buy.

Tom Lauricella Apr 2, 2026

Consumer Defensives: Firms Must Cater to Consumers Seeking Value and Convenience

Our top picks in the sector include General Mills and Mondelez.

Erin Lash, CFA Apr 1, 2026

McCormick Earnings: Q1 Gains Eclipsed by Massive Unilever Deal

We’ve cut our fair value estimate for McCormick stock.

Erin Lash, CFA Mar 31, 2026

Sponsor Center

Transparency is our policy. Learn how it impacts everything we do

Transparency is how we protect the integrity of our work and keep empowering investors to achieve their goals and dreams. And we have unwavering standards for how we keep that integrity intact, from our research and data to our policies on content and your personal data.

We’d like to share more about how we work and what drives our day-to-day business.

How we make money

We sell different types of products and services to both investment professionals and individual investors. These products and services are usually sold through license agreements or subscriptions. Our investment management business generates asset-based fees, which are calculated as a percentage of assets under management. We also sell both admissions and sponsorship packages for our investment conferences and advertising on our websites and newsletters.

How we use your personal data

How we use your information depends on the product and service that you use and your relationship with us. We may use it to:

Verify your identity, personalize the content you receive, or create and administer your account.
Provide specific products and services to you, such as portfolio management or data aggregation.
Develop and improve features of our offerings.
Gear advertisements and other marketing efforts towards your interests.

To learn more about how we handle and protect your data, visit our privacy center.

How we approach editorial content

Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investor’s point of view. We also respect individual opinions––they represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive.

To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research.

Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process.

© Copyright 2026 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Morningstar Index (Market Barometer) quotes are real-time.