Author Archive: Brett Owens

How are we feeling about the stock market, my fellow contrarian?

More importantly, should we have an opinion on the market-at-large at all? I don’t think so. Trump 2.0 will create a “market barbell” of big winners and sad losers. Let’s focus on the dividend payers that will be propelled higher—and step over the laggards.

There are some dandy dividends ready to dart higher. Today they sit in the bargain bin thanks to investor reservations about the Federal Reserve. When Chairman Jay Powell took the stage in December, he delivered a sober discourse to investors: Don’t expect as many rate cuts as you were hoping for.… Read more

Trump 2.0 is now only a bit less than a week off, and things are moving fast.

Here’s one thing I can tell you: While everyone’s talking about tariffs, Greenland and the Panama Canal, what investors—particularly dividend investors—should be talking about is way more “boring”: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note.

Because when the rubber really hits the road on the new administration, it’s the 10-year, more than anything else, that’s going to call the tune here.

And the next move I see it making, which we’ll get into below, is poised to benefit some of our favorite income plays: real estate investment trusts (REITs).… Read more

These five stocks may deliver big dividend raises. I’m talking potential payout hikes starting at 20%.

It’s possible that one of these firms doubles their dividend because, heck, they did that one year ago!

How do I know?

Gaudy dividend growth numbers are especially attractive because they often lead to big price gains. I call this dynamic the “dividend magnet.”

The “magnet” effect is pretty straightforward: When a company not only grows its profits, but shares gobs of those earnings with stockholders as dividends, investors on the outside see both a sign of quality and the potential for income and buy in—driving the stock price higher for us!… Read more

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) is an intriguing everything-proof stock for Trump 2.0. The company specializes in cutting-edge surgical devices and regardless of what the Fed or President-Elect Trump does in 2025, we know that Americans will continue to have surgeries.

Human surgeons are expensive and prone to mistakes, so the big trend in the surgery room is towards robotics. Intuitive created the da Vinci system, the most widely used surgical robot in the world.

Business is booming. The company anticipates 12% to 16% year-over-year demand growth for da Vinci. Its technology is less invasive and more precise than humans, which leads to faster recovery times for patients.… Read more

If you were taking a break from your family on Christmas Day, you may have caught my article on how Jay Powell’s recent “hawkish cut” is set to light a fire under high-yielding (and tax-free!) municipal bonds.

Here’s why: Jay cut rates by a quarter point in December, but gave investors a stern pre-holiday “talking-to,” with the Fed slashing its rate-cut forecast to two from four in 2025.

Stocks, as you’d expect, threw a one-day fit. But here’s the thing: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note (the so-called “long end” of the yield curve, which has a mind of its own) spiked.… Read more

The Dogs of the Dow 2025 pay big dividends—up to 6.8%! Collectively they yield three-times what the broader market pays. We’ll discuss individual Dogs—and their divvies—in a moment. First, the simple three-step strategy:

• Step 1: After the final trading day of the year, identify the 10 highest-yielding stocks in the Dow.
• Step 2: Buy all 10 stocks in equal amounts and hold them for a year.
• Step 3: At the end of the year, sell, then rinse and repeat.

Why has this strategy worked in the past? Dividends are an indicator of value.

Especially for big blue-chips like Dow stocks.… Read more

Let’s make this the year we run our income portfolios like a business. And project every dividend payment we are going to collect—easily and accurately.

We built a killer app here at Contrarian Outlook for this very purpose. It’s called Income Calendar and we continue to improve the tool each and every month based on feedback from dividend investors like you.

Since our goal is to retire on dividends, it is important to know exactly how much passive payout income we have coming in for 2025. This is where Income Calendar comes in. I can load a portfolio of 22 stocks and the tool will actually tell us our projected 12-month income down to the penny:

Income Calendar Projects Dividends Down to the Penny

The portfolio above reflects our current Contrarian Income Report lineup of 22 big payers.… Read more

2024 is hours from heading out the door, and here’s the state of play:

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for a third consecutive meeting on December 18. Yet the yield on the 10-year Treasury is now higher than when the easing cycle began.

Wait. What?

The bond market has been screaming at Jay Powell that the job on inflation is not done. It makes sense: The economy is fine. There are plenty of jobs. The market is not hurting for liquidity.

Finally, Jay is catching on. And here’s the twist: The hawkish guidance he gave on rates at that December 18 meeting—including the Fed’s expectation of two rate cuts next year instead of four—could actually set the stage for a top in the 10-year Treasury yield.… Read more

Need more dividend yield in 2025? Consider real estate investment trusts (REITs), which were literally mandated to be dividend-paying machines. Income is the point—by law.

Select REITs even yield 10% or more. What a payout! We’ll discuss seven of them—and their prospects for 2025—in a moment.

Now we can’t just blindly pick any ol’ a REIT. The real estate sector—using the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR (XLRE) as a proxy—only pays 3% right now.

But the average yield among this REIT 7-pack is 12.4%. That’s 4x what the sector pays!

That level of income would easily allow us to retire on dividends alone.… Read more

Merry Christmas, my fellow contrarian! Did Santa bring you a tax-advantaged dividend this morning?

The municipal bonds funding the Las Vegas Valley Nevada Water District would have made a great stocking stuffer. They yield 5% and get a tax hall pass from Uncle Sam. Which means on a tax equivalent basis they actually pay 6% or 7% or more, depending on your income tax bracket.

Vegas is booming. And the town is in the middle of a hot desert that is increasingly arid, so this muni is rock solid.

Five percent, tax free. Why’d you forget this, Santa?

Well fear not, my fellow “naughty lister.”… Read more