Author Archive: Brett Owens

“Hey Brett, what do you think of telecom?”

“Well, let’s take Verizon (VZ). It pays a 5% dividend. It’s growing that dividend by about 2% or so per year. So I’d expect the stock to return 7% or so in the years ahead,” I replied.

“What about profitability metrics like return on invested capital (ROIC)? Or margins? Or…?” my investor friend rebutted.

“If it doesn’t flow through to a higher dividend, then it doesn’t really matter.”

I was “grilled” with many thoughtful dividend-related questions while speaking to subscribers and fellow income hounds at Denver’s AAII (American Association of Individual Investors) chapter last week.… Read more

The overheating yield on the 10-Year Treasury note has investors scrambling for interest-rate (and inflation) insurance.

So today I’m going to give you 4 proven strategies—and 9 terrific investments—that will give you just that. Plus we’ll grab massive dividend yields (up to 9.6%!) and upside too.

More on all of this shortly. First, we need to talk about the one move you don’t want to make right now.

The Worst Mistake You Can Make When Rates Climb

When rates rise, folks holding long-duration bonds take a double hit, because their bonds drop in value as newer, higher-yielding ones come on the market—causing them to miss out on a shot at a bigger income stream, too!… Read more

Most investors with $500,000 in their portfolios think they don’t have enough money to retire on.

They do – they just need to do two things with their “buy and hope” portfolios to turn them into $3,333 monthly income streams:

1. Sell everything – including the 2%, 3% and even 4% payers that simply don’t yield enough to matter. And,
2. Buy my 8 favorite monthly dividend payers.

The result? $3,333 in monthly income every month (from an average 8% annual yield, paid every 30 days). With upside on your initial $500,000 to boot!

Traditional dividend stocks simply can’t keep up. Let’s take a 4-pack of popular dividend aristocrats to map how much they’ll pay investors through summer.… Read more

Have you always wanted to buy a safe stock like Coca-Cola (KO) and get rich from it like Warren Buffett?

It’s doable. But most investors “live in the past” and fixate on dividend track records rather than a payout’s forward prospects. And looking ahead is the key to yearly gains of 10%, 15% or even 20% or more with dividend aristocrats.

Let’s look at Coke, which achieved its dividend royalty status in 1987 (its 25th straight year with a dividend hike). The firm hit its coronation with a head of steam, rewarding investors with a 362% payout hike in just five years (from 1986 to 1991).… Read more

Year-to-date my Hidden Yields subscribers have booked total returns (including dividends) of 155%, 30% and 27%. These profits inspired a common question:

“How’d Brett know when to sell?”

Most investors focus on buying. But selling is an ignored art. And leave it to savvy readers like you to recognize this.

I believe in letting winners run, of course, especially with respect to dividend growers. Sometimes there’s never any reason to actually sell a stock if the dividend’s sponsor is consistently growing its profits and dishing them with shareholders.

Other times, however, we’re better off booking gains and re-deploying our money to more promising pastures.… Read more

If you’re like me, few things get your blood pumping faster than when one of your stocks gets bought out—sending its price skyrocketing.

I’m writing you about this now because it’s fresh in my mind: subscribers to my Hidden Yields service recently bagged a 58% total return in less than two years on reinsurer Validus (VR) after it was snapped up by insurance giant American International Group (AIG) in a deal announced in January.

A big part of that gain came literally overnight—the stock popped 45% from its previous closing price when news of the deal broke.

I’ll share the name of an insurer that’s set to be the next Validus in a second.… Read more

What could be better than a booming business that feeds an ever-growing dividend?

How about a “wide moat” to protect the payout’s upward trajectory? We’ll rank five dividend growers and their competitive advantages in a minute. First, let’s talk about disruption.

Tesla (TSLA) CEO and “Chief Disrupter” Elon Musk recently stormed the castle of investing theory when he challenged the importance of moats – the idea of corporate competitive advantages that make it difficult for other companies to whittle away market share.

It’s a skirmish that brought longtime “wide moats” pitchman Warren Buffett into the fray, as the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)… Read more

My college buddy AC wrote to me after the bitcoin bubble crashed:

“You were very right! All the cryptos have CRASHED. Good call!”

I didn’t address the crypto situation much as it unfolded because I didn’t want readers mistakenly buying into the bubble. Now that the air has come out of the crypto-mania, I hope it’s safe to talk about the real opportunity.

I’m not talking about Bitcoin. I’m talking about the blockchain – and the dividend growth opportunities that will unfold as this “megatrend” plays out in the coming years and decades.

The blockchain is the nascent technology that serves as the backbone for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.… Read more

Have real estate investment trusts (REITs) finally “decoupled” from rising interest rates? In other words, has the popular (but untrue) “rates up, REITs down” reasoning been busted (again)?

For those of us who have been waiting for the stock market’s landlords to carve out a bottom before buying anything new, we may be back in business:

REITs Finally Rising with Rates?

Regular readers know that the best REITs do just fine as rates rise. That’s been the case historically, and they’ll rally again this time around.

Why? Because elite landlords simply keep raising their rents. These higher cash flows translate to higher dividends, and higher stock prices, regardless of what the Fed is up to.… Read more

Here’s the truth about the whole “sell in May and go away” strategy—following it will cost you huge gains and income. And if whipsawing markets have you thinking of cutting back on stocks this summer, you need to reverse course now.

Consider this: in the 9 years since the financial crisis, this “advice” only worked 3 times. And by “worked,” I mean you would have sidestepped a decline in the S&P 500 by sitting out from May through October. Those are crap-shoot odds!

Selling Low and Buying High

And the wins you would have passed up are enough to make any investor weep.… Read more