BUY ON WEAKNESS
A growing name at 11% with 9% dividend growth. It's a little pricey, but is well-run.
DON'T BUY
A tempting 4.7% dividend. It's also very cheap at 10x 2020 earnings. Their most recent quarter reflected solid global cloud services. Their Red Hat acqusition could drive IBM revenues. But he models only 3% EPS growth. Q1 revenue was lower than expected as was forward guidance. It's an okay name and okay dividend, but you're better off with higher tech names, even without dividends.
COMMENT
For a senior looking for safety and dividends, what sector or ETF to buy? Buy U.S. tech. Valuations are still cheap, like Apple and Google. Amazon is growing rapidly. They boast strong cash flow. Will they be broken up? Will the earnings streams be broken? The latter answer is probably not; they won't kill the golden goose. Yes, he likes ETFs.
WAIT

They provide parts and equiment to the semiconductor industry. Has pulled back with the slowdown in the industry in general but they are making the right moves and trying to diversify their revenues. Probably not going to see a lot happening with this company until there is more confidence behind the industry and the China and US tensions. They have a decent amount of cash. Probably best to wait for the industry to recover.