Author Archive: Brett Owens

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have essentially one job to do for their investors – pay reliable dividends. Many do, but when firms find their payouts in jeopardy things get ugly in a hurry. Which is why you need to avoid, or sell, the five ticking time bombs we’re going to discuss today.

Dividend cuts don’t just “happen.” When a REIT slashes or suspends its dividend, it’s rarely a surprise – and rarely an isolated incident.

Let’s consider Armour Residential REIT (ARR) – here’s five years of dividend cuts and misery:

Sure, the current yield for Armour always looks good at 10% or higher.… Read more

Whenever a pundit says they’re going to show you some high-yield dividend picks, we all know what’s coming. Telecoms like Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T). Maybe a utility or two, like Southern Company (SO). Sure, they’re big, they’re safe … but even when they’re down, they’re still wildly crowded trades.

So let’s explore five dividend stocks with bulletproof yields up to 7.1%. Their payouts are high because their stock prices are low – thanks to these firms’ undercover status.

I love “hidden” dividends so much that I’ve dedicated one of my premium services – Hidden Yields – to them.… Read more

I wouldn’t buy any old dividend payer right now, with most stock prices on the high side. But, believe it or not, there are a few quality dividend growers that are still pretty cheap.

This time last year, we discussed four fast dividend growers selling below book value. It’s almost hard to believe now that the four-pack of banks we highlighted then were selling for as cheap as 70 cents on the dollar.

But that’s how you make money with stocks – by buying good names when nobody else wants them. And since my column last April, this group gained an average of 53%:

Easy Contrarian Gains Averaging 53%!… Read more

We hear it every single time the Federal Reserve raises rates, or even merely hints at it!

“Higher interest rates will crush dividend stocks – especially high yielders.”

Sounds scary – but it’s simply not true. And we’ll highlight five picks paying up to 9.2% that will prove just that.

Many high-yield dividend payers don’t care about the interest-rate boogeyman – and some actually outperform the market when the Fed lifts rates. Consider this research from index provider MSCI (MSCI) studying 88 years of market history up through July 2015 (emphasis mine):

“We found that, when rates were low to begin with, high-dividend stocks outperformed the market by an annualized 2.4 percentage points when rates started to go up.… Read more

Many investors think they need to choose between current income and price upside. They don’t.

In a moment, I’ll highlight five stocks paying between 8% and 10% with 40% upside to boot.

Let’s face it – growth matters. It’s the best way to retire on a nest egg of just $500,000:

How to Stretch Your Investment on $500,000

The table above assumes a nest egg of half a million dollars that yields 8% a year, and absolutely no dividend reinvestment – here, you’re putting every cent of income into your pocket. Look how much that $500,000 expands over just a few years as you’re able to achieve more capital gains out of it.… Read more

A $1 trillion infrastructure proposal is officially on the way later this year. Should we income investors buy any stocks now?

The answer’s yes – provided we avoid the popular names. After all, would you want to place your retirement hopes on the next spin of this roulette wheel?

Spin the Wheel on Retirement?

Caterpillar (CAT) is an industrial name you’ll hear mentioned often by stock pundits in the coming months. It’s a “cyclical” company that may indeed benefit from Trump’s trillion. But CAT buyers are taking on a lot of price heartburn for a modest 3.3% dividend.

And some popular picks pay even less.… Read more

Have you ever read something in the financial media and thought: is this even news?

I know. Every day, right?

I had that feeling on March 21, when I read a Bloomberg story saying that one type of stock—dividend growers—outperforms all others as interest rates rise.

To back it up, Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs (GS) looked at the performance of 50 stocks the bank sees as likely to hike their payouts by an average of 12% this year. (I’ll reveal—and rank—the 4 strongest names from this list in just a moment.)

The verdict? The “Goldman 50” beat the market between the end of June 2016 and March 21 of this year—a period that saw the Fed drop two quarter-point rate hikes on us.… Read more

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are a group of stocks beloved as “widows-and-orphans” investments – can’t-miss companies whose stability and rock-solid dividends will keep you into old age and will exist long after you’ve passed. It’s a reassuring thought, but ultimately, it’s an illusion. Like the broader S&P 500 and the stock market as a whole, some of its members are good investments, and some – including five losers I plan on highlighting today – are not.

I love the term “dividend aristocrat” … but only because it’s more honest than most people realize. The word “aristocrat” can refer to people who are many things, including superior, better able, smarter and wiser.… Read more

There’s been a mini-wave of insider buying in the BDC (business development company) sector. This is worthy of our attention for three reasons:

1. These firms pay fat 10%+ yields,
2. Their stocks are trading far below book value, and
3. The buyers are all founders who know exactly where their corporate bodies are buried.

So do they also know when their stock is too cheap?

We’ll analyze each case in a moment. First, let’s consider why – contrary to popular belief – certain BDCs may indeed be poised to roll higher alongside interest rates.

Traditionally, BDCs suffer as rates rise because they generate income from fixed rate investments.… Read more