Author Archive: Brett Owens

This single chart (from Yardeni Research) reveals the secret to 55.8% dividend yields:

The Power of Dividend Growth

Source: Yardeni Research

What are we looking at here?

Simply this: if you’d invested in the average S&P 500 stock back in 1970, you’d be yielding 55.8% on your original buy today. (And in just a few minutes, I’ll reveal 5 stocks whose strong payout growth will get you there a lot faster than that.)

Think about that: 55.8% is more than half of what you originally invested—returned to your pocket every year in dividend checks!

Even if you didn’t buy in till 1990, you’d still be yielding a hefty 14.6% today.… Read more

Q: Are REITs (real estate investment trusts) going to be hurt by the new tax reform?

Not at all. In fact, the new tax plan actually favors these generous dividend payers.

Let me explain why – and then point you towards the best REITs to buy for 2018.

A Smaller Tax Bill on REIT Dividends

The IRS already allows REITs to avoid paying income taxes if they pay out most of their earnings to shareholders. As a result these firms tend to collect rent checks, pay their bills and send most of the rest of the cash to us as dividends.… Read more

January is a busy time of year for companies looking to amplify their regular payouts. I’ve already shown you a mess of master limited partnerships (MLPs) that should hike their distributions next month. But for those of you who don’t subscribe to those tax headaches, I have a list of traditional companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs) that should up the ante, if history is any indication.

I encourage investors to seek out high yields and high rates of dividend growth – study after study shows the benefits of both. This isn’t just a localized market trait, either. Studies of global equities show exactly what we see here at home: That yield and growth truly matter over the long haul.… Read more

December might be the traditional season of generosity for most, but not for energy master limited partnerships (MLPs). This high-income area of the market tends to wait until January rolls around to get into the giving spirit, with many of the industry’s names doling out distribution hikes a couple weeks after the New Year.

Investors looking to jump into MLPs, then, may want to get into the seven stocks I’m about to highlight – all of which yield between 5% and 8% – before they up the ante on their regular payouts.

A host of MLPs tend to wait until after the champagne has been uncorked and the bowl games have been played to announce distribution hikes.… 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 – and I’ll show you how in a minute.

Unfortunately most investors misapply Buffett’s lessons. They “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 consider 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

Today we’re going to talk about the single biggest risk you face in your golden years.

But don’t worry—I’ll also show you how to clobber that risk and set yourself up for an easy $40,000 in cash for every year of your retirement. More on that below.

Let’s address the nasty risk first—the very real chance you’ll outlive your nest egg. A sweeping study says you could be very wrong about the length of your retirement.

A Hidden Danger

Here’s what the numbers say: in 1992, the University of Michigan asked 26,000 Americans 50 years of age and older how long they thought they’d live.… Read more

Many investors think they must choose between income and growth.

Why not have both?

Many stocks offer varying degrees of growth and income, and in a few rare cases – such as the three stocks yielding between 7% and 9% that I’m going to share with you today – they offer high levels of both.

When we talk about “growth,” we can mean any number of metrics. It can be as simple as sales, but that’s far from the only metric that matters.

The growth I want to look at today is on the bottom line. A company can grow sales all day by spending inordinate amounts of money on marketing and R&D.… Read more

The biggest complaints about the Dividend Aristocrats tend to come from new money. That’s because many of them, while generously raising their payouts year after year, offer skinflint yields that average 2.35% – almost right on par with the 10-year T-note.

You can find a little more relief from a similar club: The High Yield Dividend Aristocrats. This is a group of roughly 110 S&P Composite 1500 stocks that has paid and increased dividends for at least 20 consecutive years. It’s slightly less exclusive than the S&P 500 Aristocrats, and doesn’t actually yield much differently on average, but the larger selection includes several higher-yield growers that I want to highlight today.… Read more

In late 2007, Citigroup (C) insiders – who should have known better – comforted themselves with a security blanket that, in hindsight, was better fit for a Goodwill donation.

“The dividend’s as safe as the next board meeting,” they told themselves as the yield on their shares climbed well above 10%. On a trailing basis, that is.

Next board meeting, their payout was chopped – and their shares dropped more than 90%.

Stock yields of 10%, 11%, 12% or more are usually too good to be true. Citigroup reminded us why ten years ago, and telecom disaster Frontier Communications (FTR) reinforces the point today.… Read more

If you make just one New Year’s resolution this year, make it this: buy monthly dividend stocks. Today I’m going to give you 3 that should be at the top of your list.

The benefits of monthly payouts go way beyond the convenience of getting paid every month, just as our bills show up (although that’s a great bonus that can save you a lot of time watching your cash flow in retirement).

There are a couple other overlooked benefits monthly payers give you:

• They’re a sign of dividend safety: Smart C-suite types know that a dividend is a promise to investors, and they wouldn’t commit to sending one out every month if they weren’t serious about keeping—or raising—the payout.