Author Archive: Brett Owens

This week, we’re going to pick up some rich 8%+ payouts alongside … Taylor Swift?

You read that right. Turns out the favorite singer of everyone from, well, my two daughters to the attorney general of the United States is a fan of our favorite income plays: closed-end funds (CEFs).

That news broke in the form of a tweet from billionaire investor Boaz Weinstein, head of Saba Capital Management. Weinstein apparently heard from Swift’s dad (who used to work for Merrill Lynch) that the singer does, indeed, hold CEFs.

“Having a blast watching our daughters sing every lyric tonight in Philly,” Weinstein tweeted.… Read more

The stock market has a potential to be a hot mess this summer. Banks are failing. We’re heading towards the most telegraphed recession of all time. I could go on…

But I’ll spare you and say hey, just show us the dividends, baby!

A select group of income heroes are displaying notable “relative strength” right now. This is a fancy way of saying these stocks are going up while the market meanders sideways or lower.

Which, of course, is what we want. Contrarian favorites that will zig while the market zags (or sags!)

A few years back, I saw this quality in A.O.… Read more

“We remain on track to deliver on our best in class 12% to 15% annual distribution per unit growth expectations…”

Translation: We’re going to hike our dividend by 12% to 15% per year.

Kirk, you have my full attention. Please continue.

“Through at least 2026…”

Kirk, we’re talking three more years of 12% to 15% dividend growth?! We’re in.

Our man is the chief financial officer (CFO) of NextEra Energy (NEE). NEE is the largest developer of renewable energy in North America. It’s one of the fastest dividend growers in the utility space.

NEE is one of those great dividend stocks that is rarely cheap because everyone knows it’s awesome.… Read more

Interest rates are topping out—and it’s finally time for us contrarians to get greedy. We’ll start with a group of funds throwing off double-digit yields and trading at big discounts.

In fact, I’ll hand you a ticker that’s throwing off a 10% dividend—paid monthly—shortly. We’re buying bonds again today because interest rates are topping. And when rates fall, bond prices rise. It really is that simple.

To see what I’m getting at, think back to last fall. Stocks and bonds were both hammered, putting a big dent in the idea that the vaunted 60/40 portfolio—a long-touted retirement mix of 60% stocks and 40% bonds—was safe.… Read more

What’s up with floating-rate funds? Why haven’t they all, well, floated higher in price as interest rates have risen over the past couple of years?

Is there any hope that they’ll finally float?

Today we’ll discuss five such funds—underperforming yet now cheap because of it—yielding up to 11.7%. Can they live up to their billing? We contrarians want to know because they are trading at large discounts to their net asset values (NAVs).

First, a primer on floaters. Floating-rate securities such as bank loans have variable coupons (interest payments) that are recalculated regularly—often quarterly, sometimes monthly—to reflect changes in short-term interest rates.… Read more

The Wall Street Journal Reports:

Gee, thanks. I have something to add, WSJ friends.

IT’S A BANKING CRISIS. DON’T BUY DIVIDEND ETFs AT ALL!

In a rising market, fine. I can hold my nose. Though, you know, even a popular ticker like Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) is a lazy option that’ll cost you.

SCHD owns 104 dividend stocks and PepsiCo (PEP) is its top holding. PEP pays a piddly 2.6% but its yearly dividend growth is decent—not great but not AT&T (T) awful, either.… Read more

Let’s dive into two simple indicators that can tell us when a dividend stock is set to lurch higher. Once we’re through, I’m certain you’ll wonder why you never thought of them before.

Last time we tried them, in my Contrarian Income Report advisory, they delivered a quick 90% return (more on that below). And we’ve got another nice setup to put them to work again.

Short Selling Is Back in the News—But We Take a Different Approach

First up, short selling—a phrase that strikes fear into most dividend investors’ hearts, for a couple of (good!) reasons. The main one being that selling short (or selling a stock you’ve borrowed in hopes of buying it back later at a lower price) can expose you to infinite losses, for a simple reason: share prices can theoretically rise without limit.… Read more

The best thing about a multi-year bear market? The bargains.

Today we’ll talk dividend deals. Big payers. Stocks yielding up to 10.3% and trading for as little as three-times free cash flow (FCF).

That’s right—3X FCF!

Profits are Fake, Cash Flow is Real

Wall Street accountants can “adjust” just about every number in a 10-Q. “Adjusted earnings.” “Adjusted EBITDA.” Heck, I’ve even seen “adjusted revenues.” But it’s next to impossible to “adjust” cash. Cash flow is, well, cash flow.

Also, cash is ultimately what pays us. Dividends aren’t paid out of sales, or even paper earnings, but out of real cash.… Read more

Hey kid, want some candy?

Don’t worry about the wrapper. It, um, came like that.

No? No candy for you? You’re sure?

OK fine. Maybe you’re not hungry, but how about this 31% dividend?

Don’t worry. The stock made its last dividend payment of $0.27 just fine.

No? No 31% yield for you? You’re sure?

OK fine. And, honestly, smart move. I would imagine that January dividend payment is the last one we ever see from First Republic Bank (FRC).

Fundamentally, FRC (and other banks, for this matter) are flawed, perhaps fatally so. They are not paying competitive rates.… Read more

We’ve got a once-in-5-year buy window open to us in one of the highest-yielding investments out there.

And (for once) we can thank the Fed for these cheap 8%+ payouts!

I’m talking about closed-end funds (CEFs), a corner of the market where rich 8%+ yields (and monthly payouts) are the norm.

These (too) often-ignored funds are set to spike because the last time Powell & Co. acted like they are now, CEFs’ prices soared—and they handed their lucky investors big price gains to go along with their huge dividends.

If 2023 Is 2019 Redux, CEFs Will Explode Higher

To see what I’m getting at here, think back to late 2018.… Read more