Small companies are sneaky AI-friendly plays because they are implementing these tools faster than their larger competitors.

Expect to see these smaller firms become more efficient in the quarters ahead. Sales will continue to increase while headcounts will remain relatively flat as robots take up the slack—a boon to future profits.

Ironically, small caps are currently the cheapest sector on the board:

Broad-Market Forward P/Es:

• S&P 500: 22.2
• S&P MidCap 400: 16.2
• S&P SmallCap 600: 15.6

So, we turn our attention to a six pack of small but mighty dividend payers. Let’s start with a lender that yields “only” 15.7% per year and work our way up from there.… Read more

A market on a precipice.

That’s the vibe around stocks right now, and I’m guessing you’ve felt it, too. On the one hand, the S&P 500 is up 14% in the past year, a very solid performance (and for the record, I see more gains ahead).

Yet volatility has returned, and it feels like we could be on the verge of another selloff. So what do we do right now?

We’re going to look at a closed-end fund (CEF) that profits from short-term volatility. In fact, this one harnesses the energy that choppy markets throw off and “converts” it to a hefty dividend stream.… Read more

Drill baby, drill is driving vanilla energy investors nuts. Drilling permits spike one month and plunge the next. Crude oil itself is sitting in the $60s, too low for producers to make real money.

Our contrarian solution? Focus on the energy toll collectors—particularly a dividend duo dishing up to 8.1%.

Pipeline owners are paid every time oil and gas flow through their pipes. The latest headlines about GDP, drilling permits or (heck) the Federal Reserve don’t matter here, because there are plenty of hydrocarbons that need to move.

Big picture, US oil output has doubled since 2008. Back then, we were pumping about 5 million barrels per day.… Read more

If tariffs really are going to crush the economy, someone forgot to tell the nation’s small businesses! Truth is, these “mom-and-pop shops” are thinking big—and growing.

And we’re here to play this “disconnect” for sweet 8.8%+ dividends.

Small Biz Bullishness by the Numbers

According to the latest NFIB survey, in July, 13% of small business owners said their businesses were in “excellent” shape, a five-point gain since June. And 52% said they were in “good” condition (a three-point rise). Only 4% said “poor,” a three-point drop.

The good times look set to keep rolling for these businesses, too: 36% of owners said they see higher sales ahead.… Read more

Large cap stocks have been crushing small caps in the last few years. That’s, well, unusual, to say the least. And it’s set us up for cheap 7.2% dividends (with upside).

Small Caps Take a Detour

Small caps, of course, aren’t known for big dividends. The benchmark ETF for them, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM)—in orange above—only pays 1.1%. But stick with me for a moment and I’ll show you how we’re going to pull this off.

Mega-Caps Steal the Spotlight, Setting Up Small-Cap Bargains

Around the time of the pandemic, small caps started lagging the S&P 500 after years of tracking it.… Read more

Healthcare stocks haven’t moved since the April lows. As contrarian investors, this neglect piques our interest.

As income investors, seven healthcare yields up to 7.1% are equally intriguing. These dividend deals are available because these stocks have been left behind by the broader market. Since April 7, the S&P 500 has soared a terrific 27% while the healthcare sector hasn’t budged:

Healthcare Stocks Have Flatlined Since the April Lows

Of course there is plenty of uncertainty surrounding these stocks:

• Pharmaceutical tariffs
• Cuts to Medicaid
• Cuts to health research funding
• Initiatives to lower drug costs
• Presidential letters to pharma CEOs demanding they lower drug prices

Let’s wade through this political mess to evaluate these payers.… Read more

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the media has been fretting about a selloff in the last few weeks. But the S&P 500 is still up a lot on the year.

Even so, there is cause for concern about overvaluation, as the market’s current gain is equal to a whole year’s worth of historical returns, on average. But the softness we’ve seen lately, combined with the deep April selloff, do suggest that while stock valuations are high, we’re not in a bubble—at least not yet.

Which brings me to our beat at my CEF Insider service—closed-end funds (CEFs), many of which yield 8%+.… Read more

We’ve been dividend-hungry lately. Our Wednesday missives have brought ten income ideas since the start of July!

It’s a busy week for our brood! If you bought these payers, you have five ex-dividend dates (the dates when the stock trades at a price minus—“ex”—the dividend per share) on deck this week.

Plus, we have three more next week!

Income Calendar for the Week of  September 1

This neat weekly view comes to us courtesy of Income Calendar, our homegrown dividend tracker. We developed IC for serious income investors like yourself. The tool projects every dividend payment with accuracy that is unmatched in the industry.… Read more

Don’t buy all the “America First” talk coming out of DC. Truth is, Uncle Sam’s recent moves are quietly making foreign bonds—especially the 5 bond funds (yielding up to 9.3%!) below—great again.

What I’m going to show you is having a real impact on the government, everyday borrowers and, not least, our biggest winners: those 5 foreign-bond funds.

Let’s start with Scott Bessent’s Treasury Department. These days, it’s doing something unusual: issuing 80% of federal debt on the short end of the yield curve.

The short end, tied to the Fed’s policy rate, is the rate at which banks lend to each other.… Read more

Look, we all know US companies are raking in big profits—despite worries about a slowing economy.

The thing is, when it comes to sharing those huge profits with us as dividends, these firms are remarkably stingy: The typical S&P 500 stock yields just over 1% today! So we’re going to change that (at least for ourselves) by tapping into these firms’ earnings through high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs).

The two CEFs I’m about to show you yield 9.7% on average between them. So every $10,000 invested turns into $81 per month in income. A million dollars invested in these two funds gets you a whopping $97,000 annual income stream.… Read more