This stock has backed up nicely and offers a solid entry point for investors. Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) is a global technology and engineering company providing innovative solutions for customers in industrial, commercial and residential markets.

The company’s Automation Solutions business helps process, hybrid and discrete manufacturers maximize production, protect personnel and the environment while optimizing their energy and operating costs. The Commercial & Residential Solutions business helps ensure human comfort and health, protect food quality and safety, advance energy efficiency and create a sustainable infrastructure.

Emerson Electric comes with a 2.27% dividend. The UBS price target is $116. The consensus figure is $109.77, and the closing share price on Tuesday was $92.23.

MPLX

This is the top holding for the Alerian MLP energy exchange-traded fund. MPLX L.P. (NYSE: MPLX) is primarily engaged in crude oil and refined products transportation and terminaling in the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast regions, as well as natural gas gathering and processing in the northeast from its prior acquisition of MarkWest Energy in 2015. MPLX was formed by independent U.S. refiner Marathon Petroleum.

MPLX is one of the bigger pipeline entities, with a market capitalization of nearly $30 billion, and the company repurchased a strong $155 million in units during the second quarter. The partnership currently has approximately $657 million remaining under its board authorization and that kind of buying by management tends to keep a bid under the stock price.

Investors receive an outstanding 9.62% distribution. UBS’s $37 price target for MPLX stock compares with the $34.59 consensus and Tuesday’s closing print of $29.86.

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After huge gains across all the major indexes this year, many expect 2022 to be a far different story, with the potential for continued inflation, rising interest rates and a host of additional issues, not the least of which is the ongoing COVID-19 concerns. With some strategists seeing tepid, single-digit gains in store for 2022, it makes sense to lean more toward conservative ideas that pay dependable dividends, as total return could be the name of the game next year.