Author Archive: Brett Owens

No matter what Jay Powell says, interest rates are topping out here—and that’s put three “stealth” stocks (growing payouts double digits!) in perfect position to gap higher.

This trio are midcap stocks—which we love now because of, well, history: at times like this, midcaps, particularly midcap dividend growers, soar. This chart paints the picture:

Midcaps Counter Rate Moves

Here you can see that the Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO), in purple, rose when the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell at the start of the pandemic. But look at the right side of the chart: as rates soared, midcaps slipped. That opens a buy window as Powell steps to the side and (eventually) cuts, flipping rates lower—and midcaps back up.… Read more

If retirement gets any better than monthly dividend payers then, well, I don’t want to know about it.

Seriously. I’m a simple guy! Pay me every 30 days and I’ll smile and shut up.

And I’ll grin even wider when my monthly dividends add up to 8.7%, 14% or—get this—19.5% per year.

These are not typos. They are real yields from actual stocks and yes, they are spectacular. We’ll highlight them in a moment. But first, let’s review the magic of monthly dividends.

Bills keep showing up every month. Active paychecks from our jobs do not, which is why we rely on payouts.… Read more

Retiring on dividends. It’s the income investors’ dream, right?

It sure beats working for the rest of our lives!

Check out this July 2023 income summary, courtesy of Income Calendar, a nifty tool we built to project dividend income. I loaded up a 10-stock portfolio, featuring popular payers we discuss in these pages:

Source: Income Calendar

This is an “equal opportunity” collection of both picks and pans. Please, don’t run out and buy Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD) just for its impressive 12.2% annualized yield. Let the Nasdaq bubble pop, at least!

QYLD buys the Nasdaq index and sells covered calls to generate income.… Read more

Don’t buy Jay Powell’s tough-guy act. This rate-hike cycle is on its last legs. And that’s opening up an opportunity for us to grab high—and growing—cash payouts in a “sleepy” corner of the dividend world.

As rates roll over and we enter a recession, the unsung stocks we’re going to discuss today will gain. That growth will compress their dividend yields (as yields and prices move in opposite directions). So our best play is to get in now, before that happens.

I’m talking about utilities.

Most people don’t think of utilities as growth plays. But the stars are aligning for our favorite “utes” to do just that as Powell steps to the side.… Read more

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