Author Archive: Brett Owens

One week ago, money-printer-turned-inflation-hawk Jay Powell told the world he was going to keep hiking interest rates. And more than he thought his Federal Reserve needed just two months ago.

Yes, even higher interest rates. Obviously more bad news for bonds, right?

It depends. Let’s explore the second level take, because Jay’s outlook is actually bullish for a select slice of fixed income.

Our inspiration, as always, is renowned value investor Howard Marks, chief of Oaktree Capital Group, with $164 billion under management. Marks’ writing has won acclaim from legendary peers such as Joel Greenblatt, Jeremy Grantham, Seth Klarman and even Warren Buffett.… Read more

We’ve finally got something (two things, in fact!) working for us dividend investors in this dumpster-fire market:

• The midterm elections, which always bring a buying opportunity (as we’ll see below) and …

• The calendar, as stocks post most of their gains in the six months starting November 1.

The last time this “double-profit” setup appeared, after the 2018 midterms, we tapped it for a 57% return. That win was driven by a payout that grew quarterly.

Now we’ve got a chance to pull off the same feat again—with the same ticker we used then, too! This kind of opportunity is very rare indeed—only appearing once every four years.… Read more

As contrarian income seekers we buy when yields are high and prices are low. Today, we’re going to explore a three-pack of dividend funds that pays 8.5%.

This is “retire in style” income. We put a million dollars in these plays and get paid $85,000 per year. Plus, we keep our principal intact.

And wait, there’s more. The cheapest of these three funds is currently trading for just 89 cents on the dollar. Yes, that’s an 11% discount to the value of its underlying holdings.

Too good to be true? Or bottom-fishing bargain? Let’s explore my preferred dividend strategy and these three dividend machines.… 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 $35,000 to $40,000 per year or more in dividend income on that nest egg, thanks to 7% and 8% 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

We contrarian dividend buyers love it when an insider loads up on their own (ideally washed out!) stock. Especially when that stock is:

1. Throwing off its highest yield in years.
2. Growing its payout at a 9% annualized rate, and …
3. Tied to one of the biggest megatrends there is: our never-ending addiction to mobile data.

We’re seeing all three of the above with cell-tower REIT Crown Castle International (CCI), which has been knocked down some 37% in this selloff. That’s driven its yield up to 4.4%—just a shade below all-time highs!

A Megatrend Stock With a Mega-Yield

The insider? One Matthew Thornton III, a member of Crown Castle’s board who has a lot of skin in the game.… Read more

Vanilla investors are selling. Which means we income-focused contrarians are buying.

Our goal, after all, is to retire on dividends. So why would we run from the biggest dividends that Mr. and Ms. Market have presented us in years?

Yields, yields, yields. We recently discussed 29 income funds yielding more than 8%.

How about stocks? Glad you asked. Let’s chat about 16 sweet large-cap cash-machine stocks paying up to 15%.

If you didn’t catch it, I recently chatted with Moe Ansari on his Market Wrap program. You can read more about it here, but in short, I said the time to sell was over—we’re flush with cash and ready to buy.… Read more

The Bank of England has recently aroused financial animal spirits with its on and off and on again buying of long-dated bonds. Which has this 8.8% payer—and more like it—ready to rally like crazy.

But wait, isn’t this a bear market? Brett, the financial media is telling me that interest rates are going to the moon. And that my cheap bonds are about to get even cheaper.  

They don’t call us contrarians for nothing! It’s our job, as original thinkers, to identify inflection points in the market. And we have one that is setting up for a big bond bounce.… Read more

Utility dividends haven’t been this generous in years. Thank you, stock market selloff!

These yield machines have been expensive for a while. Today, utility stocks are finally cheap—and their dividends are finally high enough to get our attention!

That makes right now our time to buy. The Federal Reserve created this deal, and hey, the Fed could easily take it away with any hint of a policy pivot.

History tells us that cheap utility stocks don’t stay in the bargain bin for long. I’m staring at two in particular that are likely to bounce back next year. Both of these stocks are likely to deliver double-digit payout hikes, too.… Read more

I love dividend stocks that analysts hate. For two reasons:

1. By definition, they can’t be downgraded.
2. In weak moments, they are candidates to be upgraded.

And since vanilla investors, for whatever reason, listen to analysts, upgrades can provide a nice “pop” in the stock price.

So give us the stocks that can only “fall out of the basement window”—yielding a fat 14.6% on average—that carry this ultimate contrarian indicator:

They’ve lost the typically rosy analyst community. Which means it’s time for us to find them.

Does Wall Street Say “Sell”? That’s a Big “Buy” Signal

Wall Street’s “pros” are an optimistic bunch.… Read more

This dividend stock yields 10.4%. But really it boasts an annual “hidden yield” of 18.4% when we consider buybacks.

Eighteen-point four percent per year. Wait, what?!

(Your strategist pauses to point upwards towards the late, great Norm Macdonald.)

A Hidden Yield Formula for 18.4% Yearly Returns

Now what if I told you this stock was also being heavily shorted? Over 11% of this company’s outstanding shares are being sold short. This is fuel for a potential rally because these positions must be bought back later.

Remember, when traders sell a stock short, they book the sale in advance. “I think this stock is so terrible, I want to sell it at today’s price.”… Read more