Last week’s selloff put a number of rock-solid dividend stocks on sale. We analyze five below, along with their closest competitors, for ‘buy’ ideas. Please use this article as a starting point for your own research.

Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) – has become an interesting turnaround value investment worthy of attention. Despite a slew of recalls the past two years it has consistently returned value to shareholders. JNJ maintains a strong operating margin of 26%, easily topping competitors Novarits (NVS) at 22.84% and Covidien (COV) at 21.75%.

Having the best margins in the industry shows that the market perceives JNJ products to be superior to competitors and that JNJ is more efficient. JNJ also has the highest return on equity at 20.20%. NVS and COV have a return on equity of 16.49% and 19.07% respectively.

Current price-to-earnings ratios show the market favors JNJ moving forward. JNJ has the highest trailing- twelve-months price-to-earnings ratio at 14.75 with a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 11.66. NVS and COV trade at a trailing-twelve-months price to earnings ratio of 12.65 and 12.31 respectively, with a forward price- to-earnings ratio of 9.26 and 10.66.

Earnings growth for the three companies over the next 12 months varies, JNJ 6.05%, NVS 3.80% and COV 8.62%. While COV is thriving since Tyco (TYC) spun it off, they have a lot of improvements to make in order to justify a higher valuation. NVS is based in Switzerland and as a result NVS could come under additional economic pressure as the Swiss franc, tied to the euro, continues to endure volatility and uncertainty from the European debt crisis. To continue reading, click here.