Author Archive: Brett Owens

AI bubble? Bear market rally? I don’t care because I see five dividends between 10.1% and 13.5%.

Now that’s rarified air for yields! A benefit of a manic market such as this, where we have fear alongside insanity at the same time.

The five double-digit dividends we’re about to discuss aren’t tied to individual stocks, either. These payouts are dished by diversified funds with dozens or hundreds of holdings. All have experienced managers at the helm.

They just happen to be cheap because CEFland is still on sale after a rough run in 2022. Which is where we contrarians pick up the case.… Read more

Let’s talk about legitimate financial engineering today. An easy, real and (honestly) no-brainer move to boost a timid 2.5% yield into an 8.4% dividend.

Just type this ticker, not that ticker, and we’ve got it. An 8.4% dividend. Pay up, Wall Street—and give us a 5% discount to boot!

The Wolf of Wall Street would term this type of move fugayzi. Slang for BS. The suits ripping off the little guy.

This reverse fugayzi is our revenge. The wolves are scavenging for this 2.5% yield. We’ll buy the same stock, at a discount, and boost our dividend to an elite 8.4%.… Read more

Too many folks are letting so-called “safe” yields on Treasuries distract them from the real action these days: 10 “stealth” bond plays yielding way more—I’m talking 9%+ payouts here—that Jay Powell just put on sale.

These deals won’t last: As the Fed pauses rate hikes, bond yields will roll over, driving up prices—and our chance will be gone.

These 10 Bond Deals (Yielding 9%+) Crush Treasuries

These 10 picks, which we’ll get into below, are bond-focused closed-end funds (CEFs), and they’re miles ahead of 2-year Treasuries on every count.

Dividends? These funds yield twice (and more) the 4.7% that 2-year Treasuries pay.… Read more

We contrarians like to follow the insiders. Those “in the know” who buy and sell their own stocks based on value.

These “smart money” types fade sentiment. Insiders tend to buy low and sell high.

And, to be honest, we really don’t care when they sell. Maybe they were short of cash for a new yacht! Or a vacation home. Or a private jet. You get the idea.

More importantly, these insiders only buy for one reason, and one reason alone:

They believe their stocks are going to go up.

On that note, let’s discuss a few dividends yielding up to 11.9%—because the people who know the companies best are putting their money where their mouths are.… Read more

I hear that robots are standing by to run the world.

Fine—just have them send us a nice, neat report on our dividends. Preferably daily. Thanks.

Seriously, my fellow contrarian, enough with the hype. I tried, albeit briefly, to use ChatGPT as a research assistant for this column. Really it was a softball that I knew the answer to:

Hello ChatGPT, how much did iShares 20+ Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) drop in 2022?

The answer, of course, was 31%, but the robot hadn’t been fed the info so didn’t know. I lost interest and carried on as usual, “manually” verifying my numbers.… Read more

All the “basic” investors out there are busy chasing this AI-driven rally. It’s like the crypto and meme-stock messes of 2021 all over again!

We’re not following them. Instead, we’re zeroing in on three dividend growers (including one that’s grown payouts 300% in a decade and another that’s yielding 15% for long-term holders) that have been unfairly left behind.

Before we talk tickers, let me say that it’s hard to overstate just how much of this rally is tied to AI. Check out the gains in AI darlings Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL) and especially NVIDIA (NVDA) in less than six months.… Read more

We contrarians profit on analyst dislike.

Note that I did not say like. Dislike is where the dividend money is at!

Analyst ratings are a wonderful buy signal. Vanilla investors purchase payers that are widely liked—and wonder why every downgrade dents their pocketbook.

We don’t care about popularity. Heck, we prefer stocks that are far from being in analyst good graces.

Give us the disgraces. And we’ll collect our dividends while we sit back and wait for the analyst upgrades to follow.

It’s not easy to find the “uncool kids” on Wall Street. The school of S&P 500 is a joke.… Read more

Thoughtful reader Terry K. asks for my favorite utility dividend—specifically why I prefer NextEra Energy Partners (NEP) to Clearway Energy (CWEN):

Would like your thoughts on CWEN vs. NEP. I’ve looked at both and based on numbers CWEN looks to be the better option.

 

It has just raised its dividend.

 

Plus, it is better liked by other analysts.

Analyst ratings are a wonderful contrarian indicator. Thank you for writing in; I bet many of our fellow contrarians are asking the same thing! This is a great opportunity for all of us because it has been too long since we have lauded buying dividends that analysts dislike.… Read more

Our favorite high-yield bonds just hit a critical buying level. It’s time to make our move, and we’re going to give ourselves an edge by “cherry-picking” 10%+ yielding picks from the top bond minds on the planet.

And we’re going to pay nothing to do so!

The Titans of the Bond World Give Us Their Best Picks—for Free

I hate to hear people say the bond world is boring. If you’ve read about it, you know it’s packed with wild characters who’ve racked up massive fortunes.

You can’t talk about bonds without mentioning Bill Gross, the so-called “Bond King,” who basically invented the idea of trading bonds in the ’70s.… Read more

To retire on dividends, we have just two requirements. They are simple, though perhaps not exactly easy:

1. Earn safe, meaningful yields. Five percent is our floor, thirteen is our stretch goal. We’ll discuss five stocks in this dividend range shortly.
2. Keep our principal intact. To do this we’ll focus on “low beta” stocks—shares that move less than the broader market.

Beta says how much (or how little!) an investment moves compared to some benchmark. With stocks, beta is usually going to measure movement against the S&P 500.

Here’s an example. Let’s say a stock has a beta of 0.50.… Read more