The broader markets are taking a beating Friday after the May consumer price Index report — a key measure of inflation — came in hotter than expected. With inflation stubbornly raging still at four-decade highs and calls for the Federal Reserve to act faster to stamp out inflation getting louder, we continue to believe the prudent way to position your portfolio is to focus on profitable companies that can increase dividends, repurchase stock, and trade at reasonable valuations. Profitable, dividend-paying companies tend to generate steady amounts of cash flow, which provides a degree of dependability in an otherwise uncertain economic environment. In addition to this mantra, we have recently leaned harder on companies that will not see their businesses crushed by a Fed-mandated slowdown and higher interest rates — just for these kinds of market days. Some areas of the market that we are invested in and we view as generally resilient to a slowdown are healthcare, oil due to the imbalance of supply, and consumer staples. The economic outlook may be highly uncertain right now, but anytime the S & P 500 is down a quick 6% like it is in the past three sessions, we go on the hunt for opportunities to put a small (nothing aggressive) amount of capital to work in high-quality companies with strong long-term fundamentals that fit our above-mentioned criteria. Which brings us to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). Our trading restrictions prevent us from adding to our JNJ position today, but we would buy 50 shares this afternoon if we could . As a reminder, we are restricted from trading any stock that Jim Cramer mentions on TV for three full days. But since you do not have the trading restrictions we do, we will always tell you what we would buy or sell and when we would do it. We like J & J as a slowdown play because its three businesses have little to no economically sensitivity. Take its pharmaceutical business, which is one of the best out there and is growing faster than the industry. Last quarter, worldwide adjusted operational sales increased by about 9%, and six assets had double-digit growth. The pipeline is strong with 13 new drugs expected to be filed for approval between now and 2025. Of those 13 new drugs, five have the potential of more than $5 billion in peak sales. As a whole, J & J expects its drug business to grow at a 5% compound annual growth rate through 2025, which is when they expect to achieve $60 billion in revenue. Meanwhile, its medical device business has seen recently seen a resurgence, thanks to a recovery in elective procedures that were delayed during the pandemic. First quarter sales grew 8.5% year over year. The franchise has 11 different platforms delivering $1 billion of sales, and of those 11 platforms, the majority of them are either maintaining or gaining share. For the consumer health business, which has many iconic brands like Neutrogena, Tylenol, Listerine, and Johnson’s, this may be a slower grower relative to the others parts of the enterprise. But the potential is there for an acceleration if the business turns into an industry consolidator. This business will have every opportunity to double down into faster-growing categories like skincare and baby care thanks to its investment-grade profile and balance sheet. The makeup of Johnson & Johnson’s business should help the stock outperform in a slowdown, but one headwind worth calling out is the impact of the strong U.S. dollar. Johnson & Johnson does a ton of business overseas, so we would not be surprised to see forward guidance tempered at some point due to unfavorable foreign exchange, which is something other multinational juggernauts Microsoft (MSFT) and Salesforce (CRM) pointed out last week. While this means near-term earnings estimates could come down slightly, we are willing to look past this because currency is outside management’s control, and we prefer to focus on the long-term fundamentals of the company. What also has us interested in this company is its upcoming breakup. The company announced last November its plan to separate its consumer-staple-like Consumer Health business from its faster-growing and best-of-breed Pharmaceutical and Medical Device business. We believe this breakup makes a lot of strategic sense as the two independent, market-leading companies will become more focused. Management will be able to move faster and more effectively allocate capital as they navigate different industry trends to meet the needs of their customers and patients. In the meantime, we understand that the breakup is going to be a very long process — the separation is expected to happen in 2023 — and that’s why we like how J & J is paying you to wait with its 2.6% dividend yield, a dividend backed up by one of the rare AAA balance sheets in the S & P. Only Microsoft can make the same claim. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long CRM, JNJ, MSFT. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. 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