Author Archive: Brett Owens

Small cap stocks should benefit from the new administration. Today we’ll discuss four under $20 with yields between 7% and 15.1%.

The Trump 2.0 Trade is rolling and small caps are soaring because they are expected to benefit from reduced regulations. Since November 6, the small have become mighty, outperforming their larger counterparts:

Election Flips the Small-Cap Script

Too much too soon? The counterpoint is inflation, which is likely to remain sticky. Which means interest rates will remain higher than Wall Street previously hoped. Higher rates are a headwind for smaller companies, which tend to be debt machines. (They lack the cash flow of the giants.)… Read more

It’s a tradition unlike any other! Move over, Masters. In these contrarian pages we select one dividend stock (or fund) for the year ahead.

Last year we bet on a “safe, somewhat-secret” 7.4% dividend from Jamie Dimon & Co with iShares JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF (EMB). EMB’s payout plus price gains combined for a 12% total return.

Nice. This is exactly what we look for as income investors. A high-yield investment that will pay us our divvies—and gain a bit in price. But this year we are flipping the script. My favorite divvie stock for next year is a growth play with a lot of upside but only a modest 2.2% current yield.… Read more

Most people think inflation will rise in a second Trump term—we can see it in the jump in 10-year Treasury rates over the last few weeks.

But that trade is getting just a little bit crowded—and we contrarians are going to take advantage of that with a 10.4%-yielding closed-end fund (CEF) that’s come back to earth as a result.

This situation reminds me a little of October 2023, when investors were also betting on “inflation forever.” We didn’t buy it then, either. Instead I named the DoubleLine Yield Opportunities Fund (DLY), payer of a 9.5% yield at the time, as one of the top portfolio buys in my Contrarian Income Report service.… Read more

Today we’ll discuss a 5.4% dividend that actually annualizes to 7%. A 5.7% payer that really dishes 12.4%. And even a headline 15% yield that is understated because the company handed out 16.1% last year.

Wait. What?

These “typos” fool the mainstream financial websites. We are discussing special dividends today. Payouts that are awarded as a bonus to regular quarterly dividends.

Only a select few firms dish specials. Sometimes, it’s thanks to a sudden influx of money. Let’s take billboard and transit display giant Outfront Media (OUT) which sold its Canadian business for C$410 million in cash in June.

Fast forward to November, and Outfront announced a massive 75-cent special dividend on top of its 30-cent quarterly dividend, vaulting its 12-month yield from a healthy 6.3% to a mouth-watering 10.2%.… Read more

Hedge fund veteran and Wall Street-approved suit Scott Bessent is likely the new Treasury secretary. That’s why this 11% dividend is a big winner.

Bessent will advocate for financial deregulation and increased lending. Easier and faster money. Which will be a boon for private equity and business development companies (BDCs).

Prior to Bessent’s appointment, the folks in Silicon Valley were already salivating over increased M&A: Big companies tossing money at startups and private firms raising piles of dough to get in on the action itself. That’s the rocket fuel that mints multi-millionaires and even billionaires.

This extra cash sloshing around will make inflation sticky.… Read more

We are drowning in post-election stock-market predictions, so let me go ahead and throw another one on the pile:

This new administration will hurt the returns of folks who simply buy an index fund like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and call it a day.

I call SPY “America’s ticker” because, well, most Americans own it. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you do, too.

Now, I’m not going to judge (well, maybe I will, but just a little bit!).

Suffice it to say, the coming presidential term will usher in a true stock picker’s market—a time when prudent moves into, and out of, individual dividend payers will be key.… Read more

It’s hard to find a hater right now.

Wall Street fanboys analysts have Buy ratings on more than 75% of the S&P 500 at the moment.

Give us the Sells. That’s right. We contrarians are not afraid to dumpster dive for dividend value!

Today we’ll slam a six-pack of analyst pans yielding between 6.1% and 11.8%. We searched far and wide for these loathed names because, as I write, there are but two blue chips in the Sell bin:

2 Sells Out of 500… What are the Odds!

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Sells are where the party is at.… Read more

Six summers ago, Donald Trump lamented privately to Republican donors that he expected Jay Powell to be a “cheap money” Fed chair. To the President’s chagrin, Powell had recently raised interest rates. Thus, making money more expensive.

Most real estate guys like Trump are allergic to high rates. Back in 2018 they were certainly no bueno for his growth-focused agenda. The President told Fox Business the Fed was his “biggest threat.”

He even admitted to the Wall Street Journal he “maybe” regretted appointing Powell. Appointer’s remorse! Then came Trump’s biggest zinger of them all:

“The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch—he can’t putt!”

Trump’s win cements what we’ve been saying for months: You can forget about a hard landing or a soft landing—This economy is headed for no landing at all.

In the last few weeks, I’ve started to see the mainstream media pick up on our thinking here. Nice to see they’re finally catching up!

We’ve got two “refined” trades on Trump 2.0 below (ranked in order of appeal). They’re both growing their dividends, and they’ve both been unfairly left behind in this year’s rally.

Before we get to them, let’s take a look at the post-election state of play so we can get a grip on exactly how we’re going to move ahead here.… Read more

Fifteen months ago, we contrarians started the bond bandwagon. It’s hard to believe now, but back then the financial suits hated fixed income. We faded their fears, bought bonds and benefited.

Now, however, I’m cautious on bonds. The 10-year Treasury yield has been on a tear since Jay Powell first cut the Fed Funds Rate.

Bond Vigilantes Scoff at Powell’s Rate Cuts

You can’t make this stuff up. On September 18, Powell cut rates by 50 basis points. However, this was only the “short end” of the yield curve. The 10-year yield meanwhile (the “long end”) popped from 3.7% to nearly 4.5% in a matter of weeks!… Read more