Author Archive: Brett Owens

I’m sure you probably know this—but it is usually a really bad idea to pay 43-times sales for a stock.

Note that I did not say earnings. I said sales. Revenues. The ol’ top line. Before everything.

Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, famously told investors it was insane to pay 10-times sales for Sun’s stock. Ten!

At 10 times revenues, to give you a 10-year payback, I have to pay you 100% of revenues for 10 straight years in dividends.

 

That assumes I can get that by my shareholders. That assumes I have zero cost of goods… that assumes I have zero expenses… that assumes I pay no taxes… assumes zero R&D.

If the market dumpster fire we trudged through in 2022 taught us anything, it’s that we must swing our portfolios away from this:

We’re Swapping Share-Price “Flameouts” Like This…

That’s the chart of “America’s ticker”—the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)—last year. I call SPY “America’s ticker” because it’s by far the most popular way to track the S&P 500, a staple in many folks’ portfolios.

But its popularity does not translate into safety. Just holding this simple index fund last year meant taking a 20% haircut—with plenty of heart palpitations along the way! And even with this year’s rebound, the S&P 500 is still 4% below its January 2022 levels as of this writing.… Read more

This retirement portfolio pays 12.4%. Which means, on a million-dollar stake, these stocks dish $124,000 in dividend income alone.

That’s fantastic, needless to say! But are these stocks safe enough to actually retire on?

After all, we’re not looking to collect a 12.4% yield and lose it in price. Heck, we’re not interested in losing capital at all. We want the 12.4% with stocks that are at least steady.

Most common stocks would be in trouble if they paid 12.4%. But these are business development companies (BDCs), which yield so much because they have a special carve out from Uncle Sam.… Read more

Sixty percent gains, needless to say, are nice!

They can be the difference between a comfortable retirement and, well, one where we’re a bit too concerned about losses.

A million dollars is plenty to retire on dividends. But isn’t $1,600,000 even better?

With a million, an 8% yielding portfolio dishes $80,000 per year in dividends. Nice.

But that 60%-higher portfolio pays $128,200. Even nicer.

Why am I teasing 60%? Because we have the best opportunity to bank big gains—from safe dividend stocks, no less!—since the fall of 2020.

The opportunity is here thanks to a form of “quiet QE” from the Federal Reserve.… Read more

A recession or more rate hikes in late 2023? We contrarian dividend investors don’t care—we’ve zeroed in on a group of stocks that will prosper no matter what.

Three, in particular, are begging us to buy them now. We’ll talk tickers in a moment, but let me start by saying they boast four key strengths we demand when we buy any stock in my Hidden Yields dividend-growth advisory:

• A healthy yield, so we’re starting off with a strong income stream.
  

• Rising dividends primed to keep soaring—and even accelerate. That increases our income stream, the yield on our original buy and, as we’ll see below, drives share prices higher, too.

Our contrarian investing playbook is simple, but not easy.

We buy stocks that others are neglecting. At least currently! This means we secure prices when they are low and dividends when they are high.

Big tech stocks have been bid to the moon recently. But not all Nasdaq plays are expensive. The rally has been narrow, and believe it or not, we have five tech plays paying up to 6.7% available today.

This is a lot of yield in a sector that, sadly, pays less than 1% at large:

Tech Is Back to Yielding Less Than 1%

This is why the sector ranks tenth in dividend yield.… Read more

“Coach Brett, how many points do I have?”

My star player, Captain K, was dominating the basketball game. He’d steal the ball, storm down the court, and drain the shot. Then retreat into a defensive position and do it all over again.

Two points after two points after two points. I’d have lost count if I had to count. Fortunately though, we weren’t keeping score.

Most leagues these days don’t keep score when the players are only five years old. The run is more important than the result.

But my man K knew he was “killing it,” as his dad told him from the sidelines!… Read more

Few people would put the words “artificial intelligence” and “big dividends” in the same sentence—but those folks have never heard of closed-end funds (CEFs)!

These “yield machines” are perfect plays on the surging AI megatrend for three reasons:

• Big dividends: Thanks to CEFs, we can “download” big cash payouts from stocks that pay low (or no!) dividends themselves. Getting our payouts in cash, rather than paper gains, is priceless in the sometimes-volatile world of AI investing.

• Lower volatility: Speaking of volatility, as most equity CEFs invest in various sectors—not just tech—we get some extra insurance over folks who try to “cherry-pick” the AI trend themselves.

Do you also believe that a recession is on the way?

Note that we’re not saying when. Maybe later 2023. Or 2024. For sure 2025.

We are good economists. Casting out predictions without set timelines!

At some point, of course, all of the rate hikes add up. The housing market slows because mortgages become more expensive. Commercial landlords feel the pinch because, well, nobody rents office space anymore!

One by one, industries slow down. Eventually, the much-anticipated recession arrives.

As contrarian investors, we don’t actually care about economic data. GDP. CPI. PPI. PMI.

Whatever. It’s all TMI.

We’re after dividends and growth, in this order.… Read more

$600K 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 $50,400 per year or more in dividend income on that nest egg, thanks to 8.4% yields.

These are passive payouts that show up every quarter or, better yet, every month. Meanwhile, we keep that $600K 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