I Pegged This Dividend King as My Top Value Stock to Buy for 2026, and It's Already Up 11% This Year. Here's Why This Passive Income Powerhouse Is Still a Buy Now.

Last year, I picked household and idiosyncratic products elephantine Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) arsenic my apical worth banal to bargain for 2026. P&G owns dozens of iconic brands crossed cardinal everyday-use categories specified arsenic cloth care, location care, babe care, feminine and household care, healthcare, grooming, and beauty.

Investors person turned to P&G arsenic a dividend-paying compounder and person been capable to number connected the institution raising its dividend for 69 consecutive years -- importantly longer than the 50-year streak required to beryllium a Dividend King.

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With the concern thesis centered astir generating reliable passive income, investors whitethorn beryllium amazed to larn that P&G has rocketed 11.1% higher successful 2026 compared to conscionable a 1.3% summation successful the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC).

Here's what's driving the rally successful P&G and wherefore the banal remains a large bargain now.

My reasoning for calling P&G a no-brainer bargain for 2026 centered astir its comparatively inexpensive valuation, portfolio of starring brands, elite proviso chain, industry-leading operating margins, and ultra-reliable dividend. P&G was 1 of 5 Dow Jones Industrial Average components that fell by much than 10% past year, mostly owed to slowing maturation and the user staples assemblage being retired of favour arsenic immoderate investors piled into much exciting, higher-growth opportunities.

Heading into 2026, P&G's valuation was astatine multiyear lows. On Jan. 22, P&G announced second-quarter fiscal 2026 results, showing level integrated income maturation and lowering its forecast for fiscal 2026 diluted nett earnings-per-share (EPS) maturation to a caller scope of 1% to 6%. P&G continues to present gobs of escaped currency travel to enactment its dividend and banal buybacks, but the institution is acold from firing connected each cylinders.

P&G tends to support its precocious margins by raising prices. But consumers person been resisting terms increases owed to higher surviving costs. So P&G's caller CEO is shifting the company's absorption toward increasing income volume at slightest successful the adjacent term. P&G's margins whitethorn instrumentality a flimsy deed successful the process, but it's the close determination fixed that user budgets are strained.

With comparatively anemic quarterly results and guidance, you whitethorn beryllium wondering wherefore P&G is up truthful overmuch successful little than six weeks. The reply has little to bash with what P&G is specifically doing and much to bash with broader marketplace dynamics.