This “Secret” Growth Stock Has 25% Upside in 2025

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: March 19, 2025

I’d like to share my exclusive “Made for 2025” Dividend Plan with you. It’s a simple, safe strategy that identifies dividend stocks with payouts set to surge higher.

As these divvies pop, so do their associated stock prices.

The truth is, this proven system works no matter what the economy, or the Fed (or even the executive branch of the federal government!) is doing. It’s the path to peppy price gains from protected payers.

Let’s talk about a timely example—a dividend dip to enjoy! On the campaign trail, President-Elect Trump presented us with a pullback in perennial dividend grower Deere & Co (DE) thanks to these comments:

“They’ve announced a few days ago that they are going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico.

Read more

Yes, This 85% Dividend Is as Ridiculous as It Sounds

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: March 18, 2025

Every so often here at Contrarian Outlook, we get questions from readers about investments sporting yields that are, frankly, ridiculous. 

Case in point: The 85% forward yield (as of this writing) on a fund called the YieldMax Ultra Income Strategy ETF (ULTY): Eighty. Five. Percent.

Think about that for a second: With a 85% yield, you’re getting your entire upfront investment back in about a year. Pretty sweet deal, right?

Well, not so fast.

Before I go further, I should say that when it comes to dividends, one thing we demand at my Contrarian Income Report advisory is that a stock or fund at least “returns its yield.”… Read more

US Stocks Are Crashing, This “Global” 9.1% Dividend Is a Must-Buy

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: March 17, 2025

For years, it’s been a struggle to try to convince many US investors to spread some of their money abroad.

It’s only natural: We simply tend to favor the familiar—our home country—over others. Investors the world over have this natural bias.

But that’s been slowly changing in recent months. Which is great news, because diversifying internationally is a particularly smart move in times like these.

Moreover, when you diversify—especially through 8%+ yielding income investments like closed-end funds (CEFs)—you can easily rebalance your holdings in line with changes in the market, moving more into US stocks when they’re low, say, and international assets are high.… Read more

How To Invest Like the “Smart Money” (With Dividends up to 13.1%!)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: March 14, 2025

The stock market is currently caught up in its deepest slide since July. We contrarians are prepared to move quickly for deep-dip-buying opportunities.

Right now, I’m paying close attention to already-high-paying corners of the market, where we can get 9.4% to 13.1% yields right this very minute. I’m talking about from the business development company (BDC) industry, where those sky-high yields aren’t rare—they’re the norm. In fact, right now, if we threw darts at a board of BDCs, we’d be likelier to hit a double-digit payout than one in the single digits.

But it’s not just the yields I love—it’s the access.… Read more

Why It’s (Almost) Time to Buy This 15.6% Yielder

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: March 13, 2025

There are two things I need to bring to your attention right now, especially if you’re an income investor. One is my outlook for the market, as volatility really hits home.

The other is a 15.6%-yielding(!) fund that just changed its name and ticker—and really grabbed contrarians’ attention in the process.

Let’s start with what’s really going on with this wild market.

The NASDAQ is now down more than 10% from its peak price, and stocks on the whole are down for the year. I don’t expect this to last very long. My take: 2025 is likely to be a year of volatility rather than a year of decline.… Read more

Get Rid of Those Goofy Dividend Spreadsheets

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: March 12, 2025

“I don’t have to make and update my goofy spreadsheets anymore!” my man Peter B. from New Hampshire writes.

Tell ‘em, Peter!

We are devoted to retiring on dividends here at Contrarian Outlook. But a little bit of work in retirement is OK. As income investors, we should be able to forecast our income.

Note that I said a little bit of work. Not a lot! I am not interested in fiddling with spreadsheets until the end of time, and neither is my man Peter.

If you’re with us, why not hop aboard the Income Calendar train with Peter and me?… Read more

This Member of “Team Trump” Is Setting Us Up for 5% Payouts, Big Gains

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: March 11, 2025

At this point, I don’t think I really need to say that Trump 2.0 is a lot different than Trump 1.0. And one of those differences—which very few people are talking about—is a huge tailwind for the two big dividends we’re going to dive into today.

Think back to our first go-’round with Trump. Remember his relationship with Jay Powell? Terrible, right?

Back in 2018, he tweeted that Powell and the Fed had “no sense, no guts, no vision” when they failed to cut rates as much as the president wanted. A year later, he called Powell an “enemy.”

And that’s just a small sample of the torment unleashed upon poor Jay!… Read more

You Ask, I Answer: Are These 8% Dividends Too Pricey?

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: March 10, 2025

I recently got some reader feedback that made me realize something: When it comes to our favorite income investments—8%+ yielding closed-end funds (CEFs)—there are still a lot of misconceptions out there.

It’s key that we put those right, because they’re causing some investors to miss out on CEFs, and the big (and often monthly) dividends they provide. And I know I don’t have to tell you that in turbulent times like these, high payouts like those are a lifesaver.

This reader wrote in response to a recent piece I wrote about how CEFs can be better than ETFs, pointing out two things:

  1. The three CEFs I mentioned in the piece have higher expense ratios than passive funds.
Read more

5 Little Stocks, 5 Big Payouts of 11%+

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: March 7, 2025

If Trump 2.0 rhymes with Trump 1.0, then this is an intriguing time to consider small cap dividends. Let me explain—and then we’ll highlight a handful of 11.1% to 12.6% dividend ideas.

In 2016, smaller companies popped for weeks amid largely sentiment over what President Donald Trump’s election would mean for the market broadly and small caps specifically. But that sentiment-related pop eventually turned into years of underperformance as theory became reality—and unfavorable conditions forced investors to stop betting on small caps as a group, and instead separate winners and losers.

Fast-forward to Trump 2.0. I wrote in December that small caps were soaring following Trump’s second electoral victory in hopes that reduced regulations will let these companies run free.… Read more

Inflation Soars … Rates Fall? Here’s the Silly Error Many Investors Are Making Now

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: March 6, 2025

When it comes to the economy, we’re in a bit of a weird spot: The data tells us that, despite inflation fears, interest rates are likely to fall in the year ahead.

Falling rates point in one clear direction for us contrarian income-seekers: corporate bonds. Our preferred way to tap into them? Discounted closed-end funds (CEFs) with big dividend yields.

If investors know any corporate-bond CEFs at all, they probably know the PIMCO Dynamic Income Fund (PDI). It’s the biggest of the bunch, with a $5.1-billion market cap and a monster 13.3% yield.

With that in mind, PDI is a good gauge of investor interest in corporate-bond CEFs, and that interest is booming, as we’ll see in a moment.… Read more