Author Archive: Brett Owens

Stephen chose a precarious time to buy. He purchased a REIT right before the sector’s ensuing rout. But it didn’t matter because he knew exactly what to buy. He banked an easy $91,405 on this investment while most first-level REIT investors sweated and treaded water.

Park Hotels & Resorts (PK) was a relatively new REIT that was spun off by Hilton Worldwide (HLT) at the beginning of 2017. Director Stephen Sadove, around this time last year, bought 9,600 shares of his own firm – right before REITs sank in an epic rout that soon unfolded.

The “dumb” REIT index VNQ was soon dumped in unison by investors.… Read more

Closed-end funds (CEFs) are increasingly becoming favorites of retirees looking for income. And why not? Many pay 5%, 6% and even 7% or more today. In a world where stocks yield 2% and bonds just 3% or so, the extra dividends can be the key to a comfortable retirement.

The “closed” in CEF technically means that the fund’s pool of shares is fixed. Which is why these vehicles can have wild price swings above and below the values of their actual assets. (Good for us contrarian income seekers – we can buy below fair value to maximize our yields and upside.)… Read more

At some point, someone probably gave you the following investment “advice”—or some version of it:

“All you need to do to make money in stocks is buy a company with a big-name brand, sit back and let the gains roll in.”

Sounds logical, right? After all, a household name is critical if companies want to keep their millions of fanboys (and girls) hooked.

Well, not anymore. Here’s the proof.

Big Brands: Falling Left and Right

Just look at the worst performers last year: this rogue’s gallery was stuffed with companies boasting so-called “unbeatable” brand names.

Like General Electric (GE), whose banner ranks No.… Read more

That dip didn’t last long, did it?

The S&P 500 is back around 2,800, the Dow is back around 26,000, and stocks – which frankly were never really “cheap” even in the December doldrums – are back to being hilariously overpriced. And that’s a problem on two fronts.

1. It makes finding values – an important aspect in collecting big total returns – exceedingly difficult.
2. The more richly stocks are priced, the harder they can fall, making dividend landmines more plentiful in the current environment.

How bad is it out there?

Here’s a look at the short-term, which shows valuations are clearly back to their pre-dip “normal.”… Read more

A stock’s yield is only as good as its cash flow because, after all, a dividend is nothing more than a promise from a company.

CenturyLink (CTL) recently reminded us of this. Its promised $0.54 per share dividend exceeded its ability to pay. The firm’s payout ratio of 130% – the percentage of profits that it was paying as dividends – was an absurd overpromise that couldn’t last forever:

CenturyLink’s Payout Promise Was Always on Borrowed Time

CEO Jeffrey Storey insisted his team remained “committed to and confident in our ability to maintain the dividend.” I understood the commitment, but questioned the confidence – taking on debt to pay dividends is a losing game.… Read more

Let’s jump into the Kraft-Heinz (KHC) mess—because it tells us a lot about how to protect our nest egg from a Dumpster fire just like it in the future.

“Dumpster fire” is no exaggeration. KHC (which investors tend to buy for safety, remember) cratered 31% in a day on February 22, after slashing its dividend 36%.  Imagine what that would have done to your retirement portfolio (and hopefully you only have to imagine!).

Further on, we’ll smoke out three stocks (including one that pays an absurd 12.9% dividend) that could easily be the next Kraft-Heinz. If you hold them, the time to sell is now.… Read more

The stock market is way up and ironically, that’s terrible news for us dividend investors. Yields are in the tank yet again. The S&P 500 pays a measly 1.9% today. If you have a million-dollar portfolio, that’s a lousy $19,000 per year in income. Pathetic.

Most people invest their money in index funds like those that mimic the S&P 500. We can do better – four-times better, to be specific – and raise our dividend income by 400% simply by selling these mainstream plays and buying bigger payouts that are better values.

Specifically we’re going to discuss stocks, bonds and funds that pay 7.3% to 8% instead of the broader market’s lame 1.9%.… Read more

We contrarians stayed calm through the market’s fourth quarter hissy fit. We not only held onto our shares through November and December but we also added dividend payers opportunistically to our portfolios.

Now, it’s time for us to be a bit more conservative. Most US stocks have rallied so much that they are now “overbought.” This means they’ve gone up pretty far pretty fast and are due for a breather (or, perhaps, another correction).

Of course certain elite dividend growers are still good long-term buys at current prices (aren’t they always). And a select five-pack of these picks also represents solid short-term purchases as well.… Read more

Let’s face it: this frothy market has made it much tougher to uncover the big, cheap dividends you need to fill out your retirement portfolio. So today we’re going to fight back with my top 2 “off-the-record” strategies for honing in on 7.4%+ dividends that still have a lot of upside ahead.

First, to get a sense of the vice the rebound has locked income investors in, check out this chart:

Stock Bounce Crushes Yields

That amounts to an 18% bounce since Christmas Eve, which has sliced 15% off the S&P 500’s dividend yield (because yields fall as prices rise). As I write, the average S&P 500 name dribbles out a 1.9% payout—less than inflation!… Read more

Stock-market selloffs provide great times to buy big dividends. The stock market was a relentlessly receding tide in the fourth quarter, which is bad for “buy and hope” investors but quite helpful for income specialists like us.

Let’s consider high-quality real estate investment trust W.P. Carey (WPC). This REIT looks good at most prices, but the market gave us an exaggerated dip in December-early January that spiked its yield to nearly 6.5%. Savvy, patient investors who bought on this dip (like my Contrarian Income Report subscribers) didn’t just enjoy an excellent yield on the higher end of its five-year range – they also are sitting on 17% gains in just a matter of weeks!… Read more