Author Archive: Brett Owens

If there’s one thing we need to remember when we buy high-yield closed-end funds (CEFs), it’s this: always demand a discount.

Well, make that two: always demand a high dividend! Because CEFs are renowned for their high—and often monthly—payouts, with the average CEF yielding around 8% today.

But back to discounts. Luckily for us, they’re common in the CEF world: of the 433 CEFs tracked by the CEF Connect screener, some 390 trade at discounts to net asset value (NAV).

These discounts are basically free money because they let us pick up, say, Mastercard (MA) for 83 cents on the dollar through a CEF like the Gabelli Dividend & Income Trust (GDV).… Read more

Worried that the Federal Reserve is driving our economy off a cliff?

I’ve got two words for you:

Drugs ‘n diapers.

Actually, I forgot one. Dividends.

These companies are about as recession-resistant as they come. Let’s start with drugs because, well, it’s always a bull market on prescription spend in America:

Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

While some of us are popping pills, others are changing diapers. (Or using them—we don’t judge!)

Without naming names we can see that someone is making consistent deposits. The trajectory of diaper spend is a one-way trade, too:

Data source: Statista Market Insights

Let’s start on the changing table with a 2.5% payer and work our way up.… Read more

$500K can be enough money to retire on. Even as early as age 50!

The trick is to convert the pile of cash into cash flow that can pay the bills. I’m talking about $41,553.73 per year in dividend income on that nest egg, thanks to 8.3% average yields.

These are passive payouts that show up every quarter or, better yet, every month. Meanwhile, we keep that $500K nest egg intact. Or, better yet, grind that principal higher steadily and safely.

Got more in your retirement account? Cool—more monthly dividend income for you!

We’ll talk specific stocks, funds and yields in a moment.… Read more

Over the last few days, not one but three signals I use to read the tea leaves in REITs—one of our favorite places to hunt for big, and growing, payouts—all flashed “buy.”

That means it’s finally time to start selectively picking up these income plays. I’ll name two with dividends on multi-year growth runs below. Tickers in a sec. First, let’s talk timing. Here’s why REITs are jumping up our dividend priority list now:

• They haven’t followed stocks higher in ’23—so our “landlords,” which own everything from shopping malls to warehouses, apartment buildings and cellphone towers, are cheap in relation to the popular kids of the S&P 500.

Utility stocks are the OG dividend payers. They’re delightfully dull. They’re dependable. They’re always worth scouting for income—and I’ve got six 5%-plus dividends on deck to share with you today.

I’m pleasantly surprised that we still have a chance to buy utilities for reasonable prices right now. Despite a year’s worth of worries about a pending recession, utilities have been the market’s worst sector year-to-date.

Perfect. We have value!

Utilities have worked off the froth I pointed out a year ago. Let’s just look at the forward P/Es from this year and last.

Sept. 10, 2022: Utilities Forward P/E: 20.9 S&P 500 Forward P/E: 17.7

Sept.… Read more

It’s September, and stocks are shaky. We’re right on schedule.

The weeks ahead on the calendar have provided us calculated contrarians with some of our best dividend buys in recent years. In fact, two out of the last three years, we took advantage of seasonally weak Septembers to buy low.

In October 2020, with the world reportedly about to end, we locked in yields up to 10.8%. A sharp pullback presented us with values, while an accommodative Federal Reserve provided follow-up fuel. Price gains followed.

And last year, in November 2022, we bought bonds. It wasn’t a popular pick—everyone hated them!… Read more

Let’s dive into this Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) spinoff—because it shows exactly how we can tap “splits” like these to grab not one but TWO income streams growing 200%+.

Because if there’s one thing we need to know about spinoffs, it’s this: they’re about the closest thing to a free lunch you’ll find in investing. Just ask Peter Lynch, who guided his Magellan Fund to an astounding 29.2% annualized return from 1977 to 1990. His take on spinoffs, in his 1989 investing masterclass One Up on Wall Street, was simple:

“Spinoffs of divisions or parts of companies into separate, freestanding entities … often result in astoundingly lucrative investments.”… Read more

Vanilla investors buy stocks that Wall Street approves of.

Why?

If a stock is showered with Buy ratings, then who is left to bid the price even higher? Nobody!

This lame “strategy” feels good but ends up with latecomers top ticking the market. Which is why we contrarians aim differently—for the bottom of the barrel.

Give us stocks with Sell ratings. Which often means there’s nobody left to sell!

Today we’ll discuss a pack of discarded dividend stocks paying up to 12.6%. Not only are these yields real, and spectacular, they have price upside potential to boot.

After all, a stock slathered with Sell labels has nothing but upgrades in its future.… Read more

Years ago, we had a 15-month fling with a promising fund. It traded at a generous discount to its net asset value (NAV) and paid a double-digit dividend.

Plus, its price was rallying!

Brookfield Real Assets Income Fund (RA) checked all the boxes. Unfortunately, it failed the all-important “cash-flow smell test.”

RA’s NAV was declining. Not a good sign given the nebulous nature of its holdings.

The “realness” of RA ends with its name. More than half the portfolio is  securitized real estate credit.

And actual infrastructure? The “real assets” headline buyers think they are investing in? Just 30%!… Read more

Dividend deals are lining up for us across the board—and they’re likely to get better as September unfolds. It’s time to make our shopping lists!

We’ll start with three unloved corners of the market sporting the very best bargains. Then we’ll dive into three specific names and tickers.

• “Growth utilities,” which are primed for upside as rates top out and roll over, cutting their borrowing costs—and “rate competition” from Treasuries and other fixed-income plays.
• Cell-Tower Landlords, which run one of the most recession-resistant businesses out there.
• Industrial real estate investment trusts (REITs), which can’t build and buy warehouses and factories fast enough to meet surging demand.