Author Archive: Brett Owens

Landlords and lenders have taken it on the chin since the world shut down. And until this place is actually open for business once again, many REIT (real estate investment trust) investors are unfortunately rolling the dice on the next rent payment coming in, the next commercial mortgage payment being made.

To be fair, however, select REITs are going to be OK, and many of them are selling at bargain prices right now. In the short run, REIT prices can move together (for example, drop when the 10-year Treasury yield rises). However, as weeks turn into months and years, we usually see a great variation in the performance of REIT stocks.… Read more

Today, I’m going to show you how to find fat dividend opportunities in washed-out sectors. Let’s start with retail, where the hits just keep coming. (And the result is a few sky-high yields. Too good to be true? Let’s explore.)

You know the story by now. Amazon.com (AMZN) pioneered e-commerce, taking it from an interesting tech niche to the retail-reaper it is today. The numbers tell it all, as Statista estimates retail e-commerce sales will nearly double between 2018 and 2024.

Yes, the overall retail pie is growing, but not nearly as fast as e-commerce is. In other words, e-commerce is increasingly gnawing on brick-and-mortar’s lunch.… Read more

Is the bottom in?

Or is the market merely “sniffing glue” (as one of my friendly financial advisors aptly put it to me)?

No matter where you are currently handicapping the market, we have a proven playbook for buying big payers after a crash like the one we’ve just seen. We’ll consider the winners coming out of the 2008 crash, as well as the types of stocks that have performed well in post-pandemic China. Let’s get right into it.

Post-Crash Tip #1: Think Big

I love small companies. I lasted exactly 13 months in corporate America before fleeing to the world of small business and startups.… Read more

Right now, most investors I hear from want three things in a dividend stock:

1. Low volatility.
2. A worry-free income stream to draw on during this crisis.
3. Market-beating gains in the long run.

Sounds like a pipe dream, I know. But these three things are a lot easier to get (even these days!) than most people think. The telltale sign of a stock that delivers them is something most folks overlook: the dividend.

Specifically, I’m talking about the rate of dividend growth. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that a fast-rising payout is the No. 1 driver of share prices.… Read more

Bull market, bear market, it doesn’t matter: Underappreciated, under-covered companies always manage to make a splash.

That’s how my Hidden Yields service delivers portfolio doublers every five or six years. The market has clusters of dividend growth stocks that are too boring for the financial media or most analyst firms to lavish with coverage, and that don’t yield nearly enough for income hunters to take notice. Yet time and time again, these stocks turn into total-return machines that can rip off 15% in annual returns, rain or shine.

And the current bear market is providing a rare opportunity to pinpoint these payout powder kegs.… Read more

A friend of 30+ years gave me a ring last Friday afternoon to check in on the family. Unfortunately for him, I popped back with a little more “real life” than he was ready for!

Other than catching up, he shared that his 401(k) plan was now liquid, thanks to his company being acquired. Having a cash portfolio at times like these is a fantasy that few investors actually experience.

“I’ll share what I wrote to my CIR subscribers today. For long-term positions, don’t be afraid to have up to half of your portfolio in cash right now. I think we’re going to see nice buying opportunities in the months ahead.”… Read more

I know it’s hard not to worry about your portfolio, and income stream, these days, but we will make our way through this crisis. When we do, your holdings will bounce back—and likely faster than the market if you hold strong dividend stocks.

And, when the time is right, I expect we’ll get a chance to snap up some huge dividends for dimes on the dollar. I’ll keep you posted on when we’ll move—and what to buy—in my Contrarian Income Report service.

(These are the types of dividend bargains that are only available once a decade. I’m talking about the post-crash worlds of 1987, 2002, 2009 and, coming soon, late 2020.)… Read more

Successful dividend investing can actually be pretty simple. Don’t trade for years, perhaps for a full decade, and then buy super high-quality dividend stocks at bargain basement prices.

One set of trades every decade. Not bad.

It’s the way of the world. There’s always something brewing. From the “original crash” of modern times, 1987, to the tech bubble bursting in 2000 or the financial world nearly collapsing in 2008.

Now, it’s 2020, and the world is again ending. We’ll make it to the other side, of course, but between here and there we are going to have a fantastic opportunity to buy blue-chip dividends.… Read more

I hope you are taking care of yourself, and your family. This is a good time to hunker down, both in life and in our investing strategy. Brighter days are ahead—let’s make sure we get there with ourselves and our portfolios relatively intact.

On the other side of this pandemic and shutdown, we may eventually be presented with a “March 2009” type of buying opportunity. Big yields for dimes on the dollar. When the time is right, we’ll load up our income portfolios with these bargains and resume our usual light banter in this weekly missive.

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re on the other side of this just yet.… Read more

In recent weeks, we’ve discussed proven strategies for protecting and growing our nest egg (and dividends) in this crisis. These are the times when fortunes are made and big income streams are built. However, we must be extra careful about our purchases, with plenty of “payout landmines” suddenly spread around the market.

In last Tuesday’s article, for example, we covered the most powerful indicator of dividend safety: the payout ratio, specifically dividends as a percentage of free cash flow (FCF). Unlike net income, which can be manipulated, FCF is the clearest picture of the cash a firm is generating.

That makes the FCF payout ratio the perfect one-step test to run on your holdings.… Read more