BAE Systems ([[BAESF]], [[BAESY]]) is an obvious choice for defensive dividend investors.
That's because:
- BAE Systems is the UK's largest defence contractor, which should make it a relatively defensive company (governments may cut back on defence spending during recessions, but typically any cuts are not drastic).
- It has a long track record of progressive dividend growth, with the dividend going from 9.2p in 2003 to 22.2p in its recent 2018 results.
- It has a slightly above-average dividend yield of 4.7% at its current price of 470p.
But life is rarely that simple, and BAE