Author Archive: Brett Owens

Healthcare stocks haven’t moved since the April lows. As contrarian investors, this neglect piques our interest.

As income investors, seven healthcare yields up to 7.1% are equally intriguing. These dividend deals are available because these stocks have been left behind by the broader market. Since April 7, the S&P 500 has soared a terrific 27% while the healthcare sector hasn’t budged:

Healthcare Stocks Have Flatlined Since the April Lows

Of course there is plenty of uncertainty surrounding these stocks:

• Pharmaceutical tariffs
• Cuts to Medicaid
• Cuts to health research funding
• Initiatives to lower drug costs
• Presidential letters to pharma CEOs demanding they lower drug prices

Let’s wade through this political mess to evaluate these payers.… Read more

We’ve been dividend-hungry lately. Our Wednesday missives have brought ten income ideas since the start of July!

It’s a busy week for our brood! If you bought these payers, you have five ex-dividend dates (the dates when the stock trades at a price minus—“ex”—the dividend per share) on deck this week.

Plus, we have three more next week!

Income Calendar for the Week of  September 1

This neat weekly view comes to us courtesy of Income Calendar, our homegrown dividend tracker. We developed IC for serious income investors like yourself. The tool projects every dividend payment with accuracy that is unmatched in the industry.… Read more

Don’t buy all the “America First” talk coming out of DC. Truth is, Uncle Sam’s recent moves are quietly making foreign bonds—especially the 5 bond funds (yielding up to 9.3%!) below—great again.

What I’m going to show you is having a real impact on the government, everyday borrowers and, not least, our biggest winners: those 5 foreign-bond funds.

Let’s start with Scott Bessent’s Treasury Department. These days, it’s doing something unusual: issuing 80% of federal debt on the short end of the yield curve.

The short end, tied to the Fed’s policy rate, is the rate at which banks lend to each other.… Read more

Let’s talk about three dividends averaging 12%. I bring them up because everyone on Wall Street hates them.

This is notable because the suits are paid to be bullish. Sell calls are rare, especially among S&P 500 stocks. In fact, analysts shun just one index component today!

Just 1 “Sell” Call Out of 500!

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Buy calls? They are numerous—405 out of 500. Eighty-one percent!

Are 81% of the companies in the S&P 500 really buys? Normally, no, but now—especially not. AI is disrupting business models and many of these Buy-rated names are doomed companies.… Read more

Let’s talk about a terrific 12.2% dividend that is paid monthly.

The source of this income? Safe US Treasuries and a methodical scraping of option premiums for additional yield.

We’ll talk about this monthly payer—including fund name and ticker—in a moment. First, let’s get caught up on the Treasury market.

You may have tuned out Treasuries as a potential investment when DOGE austerity efforts gave way to the Big Beautiful Bill. Uncle Sam, already a $36 trillion debtor, dug himself deeper into financial quicksand.

Who wants to lend to that guy? Certainly not bond investors, who demand higher compensation—higher percentage payouts—to offset the credit risk posed by Sam’s ugly balance sheet.… Read more

Could the Fed cut rates—and actually cause interest rates to rise?

Absolutely. In fact, it’s a setup I see as very much in play. Today we’re going to talk about a 15%-yielding (!) stock that’s well-positioned to benefit.

Powell Vs. the 10-Year, Round 2

How would this “rate split” come about? To get at that, we need to bear in mind that the Fed only controls the effective Federal funds rate. That’s the “short” end of the yield curve—or the rate at which financial institutions lend to each other.

Meantime, the “long” end—pacesetter for consumer and business loans (including mortgages—more on those shortly) is tied to the 10-year Treasury yield—and has a mind of its own.… Read more

The market-at-large is expensive by historical metrics. So let’s look past the pricey, low-yielding ETFs in favor of cheap dividend stocks.

That’s right, good ol’ value investing bargains. With high yields too! We’re talking about divvies of 5%, 8% and even 11% that we’ll discuss in a moment.

The spring market dip sure was brief, wasn’t it? The S&P 500 sank into near-bear territory in roughly a month, then snapped back just as quick.

Now? If We’re Buying the Market, We’re Buying Even Higher

In doing so, Mr. and Ms. Market took valuations to high levels. The S&P 500’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.1 remains in rarefied air, last reached during the COVID rebound, and before that, the dot-com bubble.… Read more

The US is quietly monetizing its $36 trillion deficit (printing money to pay for it). Just around the edges.

For now.

Which supports more upside for this 69% dividend that is powered by Bitcoin. And Uncle Sam’s money printer.

Yes, Fed Chair Jay Powell is stubbornly sticking with high rates. Vanilla pundits claim a “hawkish” Fed is supportive of the US dollar. Yes, but—let’s look past Powell’s hollow words for his actions!

Behind the scenes, the Fed is quietly “buying” up to $25 billion monthly from Treasury auctions. Without Fed involvement, less demand would mean higher rates to attract buyers.… Read more

We’re more than halfway through Year 1 of Trump 2.0, and I stand by what I said before Inauguration Day: This administration has ushered in a stock picker’s market.

In other words, investors who make smart moves into, and out of, individual dividend payers will do the best in the coming three-and-a-half years.

That puts holders of SPY, which must hold the entire S&P 500, in a jam. The S&P 500 trades at a nosebleed 25-times earnings, and SPY has no manager to shift away from overbought names and toward overlooked bargains. That’s dangerous ground.

With that in mind, let’s run through four tickers (all of which, yes, are SPY holdings) I urge you to avoid—or dump if you’re sitting on them now.… Read more

Worried about a market pullback?

Let’s discuss seven sturdy dividends with yields up to 8%. These are “low beta” stocks which means they stand tall when the market sinks. Low beta stocks may still go down, but they tend to regress less than average.

And generally speaking, the lower the beta, the more cushion to the downside. The lower a stock’s beta, the less volatile (the less it moves) compared to a benchmark (like the S&P 500). It’s really easy:

Beta more than 1 = more volatile than the market.

Beta less than 1 = less volatile than the market.

Then we want to pair low beta with high dividend yields.… Read more