Author Archive: Brett Owens

The technology sector has long been the growth investor’s best friend, with tomorrow’s innovations fueling the breakneck gains necessary to generate big price returns. Traditionally there hasn’t been much to interest us dividend investors – until now.

Some tech companies have finally grown up. And while their profit growth has slowed, their shareholder returns have actually accelerated. These companies literally make more money than they know what to do with – so they are increasingly dishing it back as dividends.

Here are five tech titans with big cash flows paying yields up to 6%.

Qualcomm (QCOM)
Dividend Yield: 4%

Qualcomm (QCOM) has wandered its way back into 4% yield territory, but right now, the wireless technology specialist is in extremely choppy waters.… Read more

The classic “Dogs of the Dow” strategy advises buying the 10 highest-yielding Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks, then holding onto them for a year. The idea is that higher yields are a signal of a beaten-up share price – and that because we’re buying a stable blue-chip with a stable customer base, investors will eventually bid the stock back up when the business cycle turns up again.

But we can further improve on this effective yet somewhat “dumb” strategy with a bit of second-level analysis. After all, some of these companies have business models that are actually aging in dog years!… Read more

A few weeks ago we discussed how you can make 12% annually, forever, from stocks. Now let’s apply those lessons to 2017, and highlight five that should do even better (17%+ returns) this year (and likely beyond).

Remember, projecting our returns from any given stock is simple. We simply add together the three ways it can pay us:

1. Its current dividend.
2. A future dividend hike.
3. Share repurchases.

It also helps if the stock is inexpensive, as buybacks deliver more bang for management’s buck. So let’s stick with stocks that are dirt-cheap, trading for 10-times free cash flow (FCF) or less for this exercise.… Read more

Instead of meticulously picking one high paying stock after another – in hopes of building a secure dividend stream – how about simply buying a fund or two that does everything for you?

After all, you’ve already made the correct asset allocation in choosing dividend stocks – which outperform non-payers by a wide margin. There are money managers who can perform quite well with this mandate.

Some of them run “multi-asset” funds, which don’t get much press. That’s too bad, because the best yield 6% or more and focus on cash-generating assets such as real estate investment trusts (REITs), master limited partnerships (MLPs) and junk bonds.… Read more

Analysts are divided by whether they think this hard-charging bull market can last through the rest of 2017, but most market watchers agree on one thing: It’s going to be a bumpy ride no matter what. That’s why today, I’m going to show you a trio of funds that are designed to fend off volatility … and deliver high income to boot!

Within just a few days, President Donald Trump has signed a slew of executive orders and presidential memoranda with wide-reaching missions – withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership, freezing federal workforce hiring and, of course, starting to roll the “border wall” rock down the hill.… Read more

If you’re wondering which sector is set to take off in 2017 (and who isn’t?), look no further than real estate investment trusts (REITs).

I’ll get into why I’m so bullish on REITs—and name 5 great buys now—in a moment.

First, let’s look at the sector’s recent performance, and what it says about where REITs (which own properties ranging from warehouses to apartment buildings) are headed.

Here’s how the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) has done since January of last year, compared to the benchmark SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY):

REIT Investors Fall Behind

Three things stand out here: 1) REITs spiked last summer, when the Brexit vote sent investors scrambling for stability and yield; 2) they didn’t get much pop from the year-end Trump bump; and 3) they’re still way off their 2016 peak and trailing the market as a whole.… Read more