Avon (NYSE: AVP) delivered not a bag of cosmetics to Wall Street, but a batch of growing earnings. Total revenues for the first quarter were up beautifully, rising 14% to $2.5 billion. Earnings per diluted share likewise did the double-digit-increase dance, rocketing 26% to $0.43.

Now, I would have liked the report a lot more if the company had indicated in its cash flow statement that everything was positive -- unfortunately, that was not to be, as operational cash flow was, in fact, negative. Avon needed to use $41 million for its operating activities during the quarter. Well, one thing I can say is that it's a lot less than the cash needed to fund last year's operations -- Avon burned through over $160 million in the comparable period. A check of the latest 10K shows that, while operational cash flow has been decreasing over the last few years, it has remained positive, so since this is the first quarter of the new fiscal year, we can wait to see how cash flow shapes up as the quarters go by.

Avon competes with companies like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Revlon (NYSE: REV) and Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL). As I've stated in the past, Procter & Gamble is more my kind of consumer-products business, but I'll give Avon its due since it does have a good product portfolio backing its brand and a devoted base of users. The stock is not too far off from its 52-week high as of this writing, and so long as it can keep sales growing and fight inflationary pressures, it should be a decent long-term bet.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) reported for the first quarter today. Net sales increased almost 10% to $4.8 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased 5% to $1.08. That's a rather small jump, granted, but you know something, it was enough to keep the stock in the green (at the time of this writing, at least) instead of in the red on a day when the major market averages -- and just about all of the stocks in my personal portfolios -- are bathing in the evil crimson color of doom. And according to Briefing.com, Kimberly-Clark played the beat-the-expectations game and won by the proverbial penny! Shareholders should be pleased.

A non-pleasing item to be found in the release centers on cash from operations -- it decreased by about $100 million to $426 million due to changes in working capital. That doesn't concern me so much right now, though, since Kimberly-Clark will probably do well over the coming years in terms of cash generation. The company, by the way, has been repurchasing stock, so management seems pleased with the shares as a potential investment idea.

Kimberly-Clark, which is a consumer-products business in the league of entities such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Energizer (NYSE: ENR), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), and Unilever (NYSE: UL), could be a value right now based on its P/E ratio and dividend yield. Out of the stocks mentioned here, I like P&G the best, but I do respect Kimberly-Clark -- in fact, it was mentioned recently in an article by Steven Halpern that centered on an analyst's picks for quality and yield.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Procter & Gamble, Human Genome and Arcelor Mittal were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) to Hold from Buy on valuation and their expectation for slowing short-term industry growth, especially in beauty.
  
• Citigroup downgraded Human Genome (NASDAQ:HGSI) to Hold from Buy as they believe giving up Syncria's royalties removes an important value driver for the stock.
  
• HSBC downgraded shares of Arcelor Mittal (NYSE:MT) to Neutral from Overweight on valuation and believes the company needs to raise prices more than costs have risen for iron ore, coking coal and steel scrap.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• BAE Systems (NASDAQ:BAESY) was cut to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
  
• Merrill downgraded Zoltek (NASDAQ:ZOLT) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Credit Suisse downgraded Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW) and International Paper (NYSE:IP) to Neutral from Outperform.

WD-40 (NASDAQ: WDFC) issued its Q2 earnings report yesterday after the close of the market trading session -- and it wasn't full of great news. The top line was essentially flat as net sales dipped 0.5% to almost $79 million. Earnings came in at $0.51 per diluted share versus $0.52 per diluted share in the year-ago time frame.

Another negative aspect to the report was the statement of cash flows. WD-40 took in a lot less in terms of net cash from operations this time around, as changes in working capital and other items affected the flow. There's also a lot less cash on the balance sheet. And, sorry to say shareholders, but WD-40 missed analyst expectations by the proverbial penny. Investors shouldn't always be concerned with Wall Street expectations, but here's something that shareholders will be concerned with: the company lowered its earnings outlook. Management says that revenue growth will probably be somewhere between 4% and 8% as opposed to the originally expected range of between 7% and 10% -- any hopes for double-digit appreciation are now history. Net income per share is now expected to fall in a range between $1.80 and $1.90 versus a previous range of $1.83 and $1.93.

Well, now, what do we make of all this? It was a disappointing report, no question. But WD-40 has some decent brands in its portfolio, including the flagship lubricant, although its brand collection isn't necessarily on par with others, such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), and Clorox (NYSE: CLX). WD-40 isn't the current best play in the consumer-goods department at the moment, in my humble opinion. Some will point out that the stock's yield is attractive right now at 3%, but its dividend history isn't as good as others in terms of quarterly hikes. I'm not very bullish on WD-40; maybe I will be at a later date.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is one of my favorite companies. No, I don't own it; I should, I know, but I can't own everything. Nevertheless, I love P&G for its great collection of brands that dominate supermarket shelves. And, I also love that blue-chip dividend it pays out.

Well, the company announced that shareholders are going to get a raise. The quarterly payout increased 14% to $0.40 per share. Can P&G afford to do this? How does one check? Well, you'll want to look at a company's cash flow. P&G's latest 10Q shows that, for the latest six-month period, the Dow component generated $7.4 billion in operational cash. P&G spent about $1.2 billion for capital expenditures. Dividend obligations were $2.3 billion. Adding up the dividend payments and the cap-ex requirements shows that $7.4 billion amply took care of both financial activities. Yeah, I'd say that P&G can afford the nice double-digit increase.

Here's another nifty thing. Since the new annual payment is $1.60 per share, investors can buy P&G shares all the way up to a share price of $80 and still get a 2% yield. Yeah, that might not sound like much, but an excellent, dependable, low-risk blue-chip equity with a yield 2% or higher isn't something to dismiss. So, like PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and Clorox (NYSE: CLX), Procter & Gamble is a safe consumer-goods stock that should be looked to as a potential core holding. This latest dividend increase offers further evidence of such thinking.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned; positions can change at any time.

As I start to type this story, it's 2:59 and the DJIA chart I just saw read 11999.97, the tiniest tick shy of yesterday's 12,000 milestone, and 11.76 points off the record close. [By the time I published the market had closed two points above the 12,000 mark.] I know, yawn! Everyone's doing the same story. Dow 12,000, milestones in history. Right?

Right, and wrong. Let's do something else here, in this time that seems fraught with cliche and over-valuation. So many Wall Street pundits are saying, watch out! There's a slowdown ahead. And surely, many of these valuations seem high. Too high. But in my opinion, there are just as many stocks that have room to grow.

I'm looking at the numbers and I've found five Dow stocks to stay away from, and five that may still have some legs.

Five with room to zoom:

• 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), $79.20 up 3.66% today; 52-week high $88.35; 52-week low $67.05. P/E 17.47. Latest quarter results show it is up 6% on LCD growth. I think that P/E is nice and low for a company which, despite its industrial roots, is really an innovative company that actually makes things that people want. A good 10% below the 52-week high sounds like lots of room to me.