Author Archive: Brett Owens

One thing we always demand in a stock is a megatrend-powered dividend that grows. And there aren’t many megatrends bigger than the soaring need for (and tight supply of) food.

I’ll share three tickers from three different parts of the food business—a fertilizer maker, a crop trader and a seller of packaged foods here in the US—in a second.

These “megatrend” plays have grown their payouts fast, driving quick pops in their share prices. (Pick No. 3 could easily 3X its payout tomorrow without breaking a sweat!) The best part is that these payouts have staying power through inflation, recession, geopolitical mayhem, you name it.… Read more

“Why are they interviewing this guy? He doesn’t know… anything.”

I paused the Netflix pseudo-documentary and searched for a quick, thoughtful response to my wife. As the resident investment strategist of the house, my reputation was on the line.

“The dude made a lot of money on GameStop (GME). I think. Or he lost a lot. They’ll tell us at the end.”

Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga is a fast, fun watch. You will remember the story:

• Hedge funds were massively short GME (more than 100% of its shares were sold short).
• Internet bros and gals learned this and started buying.

I recently joined Market Wrap to chat with Moe Ansari about the market. With most money managers, Joe Sixpack and CNBC now universally bearish, he was keen to hear an original take!

The time to dump stocks, I told Moe, was early in the year. Or late ’21. Before the mainstream media even whispered the words bear market. Now that just about everything is 20% down, we have professional stock cheerleaders like The Wall Street Journal lamenting that buying the dip isn’t working.

A contrarian sign that this dip should be bought? Perhaps…

Moe and I yapped about the Federal Reserve (of course), the doom and gloom mainstream crowd, and my two favorite dividend stocks to buy right now.… Read more

Bear markets are great for calculated contrarian investors like us. We have many dividend growers in the bargain bin.

I mean, it’s rarely this stuffed. We have lots to sort through today. Specifically we’ll talk about 43 dividend payers that are about to announce their next payout hikes.

Most of these stocks are cheaper than they were at the start of the year. Some are quite a bit discounted. Plus, these upcoming dividend raises are the perfect announcements for us to front run.

Why? Because once the news becomes public, the “dividend magnet” will pull these prices higher.

Dividend Growth + The “Dividend Magnet”

The “dividend magnet” is my favorite financial phenomenon.… Read more

I wouldn’t freak out now. In fact, I’d use this market swoon to go shopping—and pick up dividends for dimes on the dollar.

My favorite idea today is an 8.5% yield that—amazingly—trades at a 28% discount to its NAV (net asset value). That’s a dollar for 72 measly cents!

I’ll share the specifics in a minute. First, let’s calm down. The time to sell was five short weeks ago, when we discussed the likelihood that another short-term top was in:

I’m talking about the dividend dogs that, if we’re being honest, are not deserving of long-term positions in our retirement portfolios.

Don’t be drawn in by this spiking 2-year Treasury yield. Even at just north of 4%, we’re still not retiring off of it!

Think about it for a second: for a ho-hum 4.2%, you’re locking up your cash for two years. Sure, you’ll get your principal back, but you’re still way behind inflation. And it’s almost certain that stocks will be higher two years out, so you’ll miss out on that gain, too.

I say that because the average bear market lasts about 10 months. This is month nine. We don’t get a free pizza if it ends at the 10-month mark.… Read more

To paraphrase the great Jerry Maguire:

Show me the money. Monthly!

I don’t know about you, but my bills come every 30 days. So, I demand the same from my dividends.

Monthly dividend payers are a “must have” in retirement. After all, who has the time to track down a quarterly payment? Afternoons are for craft cocktails, not accounting.

(My buddy makes a dangerously tasty absinthe old fashioned. Would wait until after sundown on that one.)

Speaking of bitters, that’s life as a quarterly dividend receiver (sorry, couldn’t resist). Monthly payouts are magical, and not just for passive income. These income vehicles also hold three core advantages against all other stocks and funds that pay less frequently:

1. Better overall returns thanks to compounding: If all else (performance and yield) is equal, a monthly dividend stock, with dividends reinvested, will always return just a little more over time than stocks that pay quarterly, semiannually or annually because you can put your cash to work sooner, which means it can compound faster.

The stock market keeps falling and falling because, for the first time in 14 years, there’s nobody to catch it.

The “Fed put” has expired.

The genesis of the Federal Reserve’s implicit put—the notion that the Fed will fix any decline—was the 2008 Financial Crisis. With the financial system on the ropes, the stock market itself became “too big to fail” as far as the Fed was concerned. Then-Chairman Ben Bernanke printed a bunch of money, boosted the market and became a Wall Street (bank, at least) hero.

Since then, the Fed has cradled the stock market. Anytime the S&P 500 hiccups or corrects, the central bank steps in to print money.… Read more

Today we’re going to “onshore” ourselves 2 unsung dividend payers that are pumping out cash: one has seen its cash flow surge 367% in just the last three years—feeding a quick “dividend double” for its shareholders.

Both of these payouts have plenty of room to grow from here, thanks to today’s biggest—and least discussed—megatrend.

I’ll share the tickers on these two stealth dividend plays in a second.

As for the megatrend, the hint was in the first line: most people haven’t noticed, but American multinationals are “onshoring”—or bringing manufacturing back to the USA—in droves. This shift will only accelerate in the years ahead, and will make folks who buy the right stocks now some very big profits (and dividends!)… Read more

“Hey Brett, how’s business?”

“Awful,” I admitted. “But we’re a startup. If we can improve from awful to simply bad, it will be a big milestone for us.”

That was one economic meltdown ago, back in 2008. I had just left my “day job” to start my first company. On cue, the Great Recession descended upon us.

But the gloomy economic backdrop didn’t matter. Actually, it was a blessing. A recession is actually the best time to start companies and grow them.

As a startup with no money, we were able to cobble our limited resources together to get the company off the ground.… Read more