The S&P 500 index has been “relief rallying” like crazy, but to most income investors, this means nothing. The wider the basket of stocks, the rougher the year it has been. Let’s consider that (as I’m writing this):

• Year to date, the “big cap focused” S&P 500 is down “just” 12%. However,
• When we weight its 500 stocks equally, its return drops to 20% YTD. And,
• When we expand the universe to look at small cap stocks, we see the Russell 2000 is down a brutal 24% thus far in 2020:

Don’t Let the S&P 500 Fool You

Plus, we now face another problem: an income drought!… Read more

If you’re like pretty well everyone else, you’re closely watching Gilead Sciences (GILD), creator of remdesivir, a drug that, last week, showed progress in treating the coronavirus in a US government study.

But does that make Gilead a good stock to buy now, particularly if you’re focused on income? Let’s take a look.

First up, unlike many other stocks these days, Gilead boasts a safe payout, with the dividend accounting for just 38% of free cash flow in the last 12 months. And the company has increased its dividend every year since initiating it in 2015:

A Reliable Dividend

It’s on the current-yield front where the dividend story starts to fray.… Read more

Mainstream financial channels have made a big deal out of the current, furious relief rally (“Is it a ‘V-shaped’ recovery?” they muse). Whether it’s a V, a W, an L, a Nike swoosh or (my favorite) a bathtub, the fact is that many cash flows—and hence the dividends they fund—are under siege.

(This is no surprise. The average bear market lasts 12 to 18 months. We are just beginning month three—yikes.)

But all hope is not lost! We can still find secure yields, even reliable monthly dividends to boot, right now. In a moment, we’ll sift through the market’s trash heap to find these valuable sources of income stability.… Read more

If you’re like many investors these days, you’re warily eyeing your portfolio, wondering where the next dividend cut will come from.

Fear of dividend cuts is reasonable, even if you hold the Dividend Aristocrats—the 63 S&P 500 firms that have raised their payouts for 25 years (or more). This club includes well-known names like McDonald’s (MCD), Lowe’s (LOW), Kimberly-Clark (KMB) and Procter & Gamble (PG), as well as less familiar firms, like Sysco (SYY), VF Corporation (VFC) and Linde (LIN).

For many folks, the Aristocrats are sacred cows. But the crisis will inevitably force some of these companies to cut payouts in the weeks and months ahead.… Read more

While most income investors stare at their portfolios, searching for the next shoe to drop, we contrarian yield collectors were treated to a rare treat this week. A dividend increase—from an income fund that now yields 8%!

We’ll talk specifics in a moment, but let’s start with the cash flow stream. This fund buys “preferred” shares, a brand of stock that most mainstream investors are not familiar with. The “first-level” types typically limit themselves to the common shares of stock, which are what you receive when you place an order to buy with your broker.

Preferred are there, too, if you know where to look.… Read more

The convenience of a one-click ETF is tempting, but in times like these, buying one can seriously cap your upside—and cause you to leave serious dividend cash on the table, too.

I know that’s a controversial statement, with the millions of ETF fanboys and fangals out there, so let me explain why you do not want to pile into these vehicles during a bear market like this one.

I’ll start with a very popular ETF, the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM). True to its name, it holds the stocks that pop into most people’s minds when they think about dividends, like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Procter & Gamble (PG), Verizon Communications (VZ) and Pfizer (PFE).… Read more

If you have cash to deploy in this market, you’re in luck: dividend yields on some top-name stocks are scraping historic highs. And these same stocks are often so oversold they’re primed for big upside, too.

The obvious question follows: how do you find these income-and-growth plays? Let’s dive into a two-step “screen” that does just that. It starts with the lifeblood of share prices (and dividends): corporate earnings.

Unfortunately, growing profits are getting rarer these days. Look at this chart from FactSet, showing projected earnings for the just-completed first quarter, as more S&P 500 firms report:

Earnings Drop, But Look to the Left

So far, it appears that most companies will see earnings declines in the first quarter of 2020, but when we take the market apart sector by sector, we see that there are a few sectors, like consumer staples, utilities and health care, showing rising earnings—and in the case of utilities and telecoms, significant earnings gains.… Read more

In normal times, we contrarians are stuck combing the market’s backwaters—REITs, closed-end funds (CEFs) and the like—in our hunt for outsized dividends.

But, of course, these are not normal times.

This crisis has flipped the script. Now we can get the same big payouts but with much less work. In fact, we can get them from the same stocks you’ll find in any American’s portfolio! This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it can’t last.

Fishing Close to Shore

The last time I saw a situation like this was in March 2009, days before the S&P 500 bottomed in the financial crisis.… Read more

It happens in every crisis: far too many people miss out on big gains (and dividends!) because they’re too focused on the last wipeout.

You can see this tragic mistake throughout history—and many folks are in danger of making it now. I don’t want you to be one of them, so let me explain where I’m going here.

The Generals Always Fight the Last War

Let’s start with the dot-com crash of 2001. After that collapse, many people feared any kind of tech stock. But those who disavowed tech missed out on a monster return. For example, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, has more than doubled up the S&P 500’s gain since.… Read more

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