Author Archive: Brett Owens

We contrarians follow Wall Street analysts because we like to fade their opinions!

When most say Buy, we are cautious. There is nobody left to upgrade these shares.

When they slap a Sell label, we are intrigued. So you’re saying the next rating change will be an upgrade?

These slippery suits rate most stocks Buys because, well, that’s the business. As we speak, 403 of the S&P 500 (!) is rated a Buy!

So let’s sift through the Holds and the Sells. Today we’ll sort through a five-pack yielding between 5% and 15.8%.

Dillard’s (DDS)
Dividend Yield: 5.0%

Dillard’s (DDS) is one of the most improbable retail success stories of the past decade or so.… Read more

WOOF!

I pogoed off my couch for a split second. (Well, maybe a quarter-inch leap… a meaningful move at my age, nonetheless.) My work-from-home afternoon was temporarily interrupted by my security team: Bizzi the Weimaraner.

But there was no reason for alarm! I could tell, even as she issued her follow-up warnings:

WOOF! 

WOOOOOOOF!

“Got it,” I commended her. “Noted.” WOOF! “Thank you.”

Her tell was in her tone. The mailman. He walks up our steps, she flips out. But not really—her bark has a mailman tone to it. (And by the way, he’s the rare, unfortunate mailman who can’t stand dogs.… Read more

The midterms are over, but volatility hasn’t gone away.

It’s easy to see why. Despite the euphoria following the election (and the clarity it brought), on the ground, not much has changed.

The mood? Still fearful. Inflation? Still too high. And some corners of the market (I’m looking at you, tech) are still looking overstretched.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still bullish. At some point, the Iran conflict will likely wind down. That would take some of the strength out of oil prices.

Meantime, AI continues its cost-cutting—and profit-boosting—march across the economy. And as we discussed a couple weeks ago, we’ve got the calendar at our backs, with the third year of the four-year presidential cycle historically the best for stocks.… Read more

The ball swung to me, and without hesitation I went up for a 15-foot jump shot. Then I heard a yell. It was from “Old Carlos,” who was 10 feet from the play, who, by the way, is usually 10 feet out of the play. “He’s open for a reason,” OC yelled.

Well, I thought as I went into my shooting motion, “Little does OC know, but I’m a good jump shooter, and the elbow is a good shot for me. This is well within my range. Just because he hasn’t seen me play before doesn’t mean I can’t hit the shot.”… Read more

Can you hear me now, income investors? Verizon (VZ) wants to know.

It’s been a roller-coaster October for the telecom. Given its always-high yield, I know our dividend fans are often considering Verizon, asking, “Is it a good buy now?”

Well, its price is down and profits are up. So that’s a promising start!

Why the bargain though? (Or as my kids ask me when they watch commercials: Daddy, what’s the catch?)

On October 8, Elon Musk made a move! Potential competitor SpaceX (SPCX) agreed to buy nationwide spectrum in a move that would bring Musk into the telecom world.… Read more

The midterms are here—and we contrarians are voting for 13.5% dividends.

The payout we’re going to discuss today isn’t just well into double digits—it also has a history of rolling out, like clockwork, through all sorts of political mayhem.

It’s the ultimate “Alka-Seltzer” divvie for election-season heartburn. And it’s exactly what we need now.

This 13.5% dividend comes from a closed-end fund (CEF) called the DoubleLine Income Solutions Fund (DSL). It’s a holding of my Contrarian Income Report service that recently marked its 10th year in our portfolio.

DSL just hit another milestone, too: It “paid back” our buy price in dividends alone.… Read more

Income investors are attracted to low-beta stocks like moths to a flame. Low beta has a reputation for being low drama, but is it really?

Technically, beta measures how closely a stock moves with the market. Intuitively, we’re looking for low-beta stocks because we think that they’ll do better during a market pullback.

Here’s a low-beta dog—and one of today’s picks: NNN REIT (NNN). Its beta over the last year is near zero, but the stock has returned just 5.4% over the last 12 months, versus 14.4% for the S&P 500. And from its July high to mid-October, NNN fell 14%.… Read more

Social Security recipient? You’re set to receive a 3.6% raise in January.

How about your dividend portfolio? Well, it depends on your positions! So let’s talk about the stocks and funds that will give us that magical COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) we love to sip versus the static divvies that can become a bit stale year after year.

We’re all about the 7% to 8% yields here at Contrarian Outlook. Generous dividends are good! But often these come with fixed paychecks that are, well, fixed.

Year after year we collect the same check. In January, we’ll have some COLA FOMO. Inflation is our hidden nemesis.… Read more

Investors are dumping top dividend growers. And they’re doing it at the worst possible time.

This is the kind of moment we contrarians live for: When investors look at short-term worries and panic—and forget the longer-term (and much rosier!) setup before them.

This is the basis of the old market adage that “Stocks climb a wall of worry.”

They do—and we’re here for it.

I’ve got two dividends for you below: one that’s taken too heavy a beating, and another that’s overlooked but just starting to get on the crowd’s radar. Its surging dividend (up 358% in the last decade) sure helps.… Read more

Getting antsy about the midterms? Wondering whether oil will ever come back down? Afraid the AI bubble is going to pop, blowing a dotcom-sized hole into your retirement portfolio?

I’m not. Because I’ve found the best cure for headline risk is a fat income check—preferably one that arrives every month.

The headline risks I mentioned are really starting to eat away at investors big and small. The VIX volatility index just spiked to multimonth highs. Hedge funds have been unloading their tech holdings at the fastest rate in a decade. Even though the major indices are just a percent or two off their highs, breadth has been terrible and small caps are actually in a correction.… Read more