Author Archive: Brett Owens

Chief Investment Strategist

Buy at These Highs? No Thanks – 4 Cheap Dividends Instead

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: February 7, 2020

If you’re an income investor like me, these stock market all-time highs are pure misery. Fortunately, I have a fix, which I’ll explain in a moment.

High stock prices mean low yields for new money, which unfortunately minimizes dividend potential. Plus, buying overpriced stocks limits upside potential, too.

Why reach for a 2% yield when you could lose that in an overnight trading session?

Cheap dividend stocks are a rare breed right now. But there are a few bargains left, and not because they are risky. These misunderstood shares are the last bastions of dividend value remaining on the board today.… Read more

Late Cycle Investing: Dividend Stocks for 2020 and Beyond

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: February 5, 2020

Until a flu-like virus emerged halfway around the world, it’s been three peaceful months since we’d seen a “1% up or down day” in stocks. As usual, the volatility inspired investors to reflect upon the advanced age (almost eleven years) of our current bull market.

To paraphrase the legendary rock band Chicago, does anybody really know what time it is in the rally right now? “Late cycle” is a popular guess. But how late?

Did the streetlights just pop on, or is it 2am with money managers stumbling into their taxis and Ubers outside?

Most rallies don’t make it to eleven, but then again, most don’t follow financial crises either.… Read more

How to “Inoculate” Your Portfolio From Coronavirus (and Get 6%+ Dividends)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: February 4, 2020

I’m sure you’ve noticed stocks whipsawing in the past week on fears of the spreading coronavirus. We’ll talk income investment strategy shortly, with a specific focus on safe dividends and profits, regardless of where the markets go from here.

First, I should say that I’m not going to go into the health or political implications of this outbreak, which has infected thousands as I write this, with 99% of those in China.

As investors, we need to look at the situation through a clear, logical financial lens. And the good news is that right now we have a great opportunity to safeguard (and even grow) our nest egg—and our dividend income, too.… Read more

These Bear-Repellent Stocks Yield 6% to 11%

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: January 31, 2020

The stock market is driven by greed and fear. And when the latter takes full control of the wheel, as is the case right now, value-minded income investors need to stay sharp.

It’s been more than a decade since we’ve gotten a true bear market, which tends to bring stock valuations more in line with historical norms. Even so, since 2009, we’ve experienced a few quick drawdowns that resulted in more reasonable prices, and more generous yields, than this expensive market typically offers.

There was the August 2014 correction triggered by China’s “Black Monday.” There was our near-bear experience in 2018, prompted by tariff fears, Fed rate hikes and the partial government shutdown.… Read more

Dividend Portfolio FAQs: Your Questions, My Answers

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: January 29, 2020

A big thank you to the 1,640 subscribers who attended our Contrarian Income Report webcast! As discussed on the call, I did my best to address pre-submitted questions during the session.

Even more questions came in during the live webcast. (I love the enthusiasm!) As you know, while I’m not allowed to give personal investment advice, I do read every question. And I like to use this weekly column to address the most common questions. So, let’s chat about your shared thoughts, curiosities and concerns.

Q: Should I be worried about the latest coronavirus? If not me, how about my portfolio?Read more

This “Dividend Time Machine” Lets You Buy 7% Payouts at 2019 Prices

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: January 28, 2020

Let’s be honest: our lives would be much easier if we could just buy the typical S&P 500 stock, get the 7%+ dividends we need for retirement, and call it a day. Trouble is, the popular kids only pay high yields when the market’s in flames!

Like Pfizer (PFE), which yields a ho-hum 3.8% now. But if you’d bought when stocks bottomed during the financial crisis, you’d be sitting on a cash machine: back then (March 2009), Pfizer’s payout shot up to an incredible 11%!

Pfizer’s (Very) Temporary 11% Yield

Of course, you needed quick reflexes and nerves of steel to lock in that yield before it vanished in the rebound.… Read more

This Dividend “Secret” Crushes the Broader Stock Market

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: January 24, 2020

Dividends are the surest, safest building block of a comfortable retirement. And you needn’t just “settle” for retiring on dividends. You can even pick dividend stocks that’ll double your money or better, too.

All you need is a little quality.

What’s is “Quality”?

Quality isn’t some nebulous idea. It’s a “factor,” and it’s defined by a set of attributes or characteristics that the Wall Street “quants” are increasingly affectionate for.

Factor-based investing has become quite the rage in recent years. It’s a way to slice and dice the stock market by numbers. Yield, value, momentum, and other metrics are the ingredients.… Read more

5 Steps for 15% Per Year (Whether Bull or Bear)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: January 22, 2020

Will this bull market actually die of old age this year?

The macro picture is dicey and stock valuations are pricey, but we must stay invested. The stock market goes up about two-thirds of the time. Permabears miss out on compounding and it’s not as easy to be a part-time bear as it sounds.

To illustrate this let’s consider a study by Hulbert Financial. The firm looked at the best “peak market timers”–the gurus who correctly forecasted the bursting of the Internet bubble in March 2000 and the Great Recession in October 2007.

These were the clairvoyant advisors who had their clients out of stocks and mostly in cash when the S&P 500 was about to be chopped in half.… Read more

My 3-Step Plan for 20% Upside, 9% Dividends, in 2020

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: January 22, 2020

We’re just three weeks into 2020 and it’s already a dividend wasteland!

Happy New Year! Enjoy Your 1.7% Dividend

Drop $500K into the typical (miserly) S&P 500 stock today and you get a pathetic $713 a month in dividend payouts. That’s no retirement; it might cover the cost of your commute and coffee on the way to your job as a Walmart (WMT) greeter—so long as you avoid going to Starbucks (SBUX)!

Treasuries? Forget it. At a 1.8% yield, we’re not retiring on them, either.

No wonder I hear from so many investors wary of putting their cash in a market yielding less than inflation.… Read more

3 Bargain REITs Paying 8%+ (But Cheap for a Reason?)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: January 17, 2020

Income hunters that made their way into real estate investment trusts (REITs) at the start of 2019 are rolling in more than rent checks right now. Not only did they enjoy the sector’s generous dividends, they enjoyed big price gains to boot.

Even the “dumbly indexed” Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) peeled off a sweet 28.9% in total returns last year. That’s its best showing since 2014, and more than double its average annual return of 11%-plus over the past decade.

But do these big 2019 gains mean that we’re due to regress in 2020?

I’ve previously warned about the dangers of holding REITs whose fundamentals are out of whack with its valuation.… Read more