Bull or Bear? This Safe Divvie Grower Don’t Care!

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“Daddy,” My nine-year-old started. I knew exactly what she was about to say.

“They said a lot of bad words.”

We were strolling out of Golden 1 Center. Our playoff-hopeful Sacramento Kings had just dropped another home game to a losing team. Our fellow fans were in foul moods.

Their postgame language was, shall we say, colorful. I thanked my daughter for her observation, and we continued our stroll away from the salty crowd. Best to get some distance before calling an Uber.

(A reformed dad like me couldn’t lecture our neighboring group with any real credibility. I mean, please don’t rewind my personal postgame tape to my time as a twenty-something.… Read more

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Me: “Let’s find companies with lots of debt and buy them. And make a lot of money.”

You: “Wait, what?”

(Nod as always to the late, great Norm Macdonald.)

Hear me out. Last week, plain vanilla investors threw a midweek fit when Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell said something we contrarians assumed already: No rate cut coming in March.

The Fed decides the Fed funds rate. This often cues the two-year Treasury yield to follow. (Yes, sometimes, the two-year leads. As always in economics and relationships, it’s complicated.)

We can debate who leads who, but the key is that the Fed controls short-term rates, but the bond market determines long-term rates.… Read more

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It’s September, and stocks are shaky. We’re right on schedule.

The weeks ahead on the calendar have provided us calculated contrarians with some of our best dividend buys in recent years. In fact, two out of the last three years, we took advantage of seasonally weak Septembers to buy low.

In October 2020, with the world reportedly about to end, we locked in yields up to 10.8%. A sharp pullback presented us with values, while an accommodative Federal Reserve provided follow-up fuel. Price gains followed.

And last year, in November 2022, we bought bonds. It wasn’t a popular pick—everyone hated them!… Read more

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Don’t buy Jay Powell’s tough-guy act. This rate-hike cycle is on its last legs. And that’s opening up an opportunity for us to grab high—and growing—cash payouts in a “sleepy” corner of the dividend world.

As rates roll over and we enter a recession, the unsung stocks we’re going to discuss today will gain. That growth will compress their dividend yields (as yields and prices move in opposite directions). So our best play is to get in now, before that happens.

I’m talking about utilities.

Most people don’t think of utilities as growth plays. But the stars are aligning for our favorite “utes” to do just that as Powell steps to the side.… Read more

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Let’s talk about legitimate financial engineering today. An easy, real and (honestly) no-brainer move to boost a timid 2.5% yield into an 8.4% dividend.

Just type this ticker, not that ticker, and we’ve got it. An 8.4% dividend. Pay up, Wall Street—and give us a 5% discount to boot!

The Wolf of Wall Street would term this type of move fugayzi. Slang for BS. The suits ripping off the little guy.

This reverse fugayzi is our revenge. The wolves are scavenging for this 2.5% yield. We’ll buy the same stock, at a discount, and boost our dividend to an elite 8.4%.… Read more

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“We remain on track to deliver on our best in class 12% to 15% annual distribution per unit growth expectations…”

Translation: We’re going to hike our dividend by 12% to 15% per year.

Kirk, you have my full attention. Please continue.

“Through at least 2026…”

Kirk, we’re talking three more years of 12% to 15% dividend growth?! We’re in.

Our man is the chief financial officer (CFO) of NextEra Energy (NEE). NEE is the largest developer of renewable energy in North America. It’s one of the fastest dividend growers in the utility space.

NEE is one of those great dividend stocks that is rarely cheap because everyone knows it’s awesome.… Read more

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“We remain on track to deliver on our best in class 12% to 15% annual distribution per unit growth expectations…”

Translation: We’re going to hike our dividend by 12% to 15% per year.

Kirk, you have my full attention. Please continue.

“Through at least 2026…”

Kirk, we’re talking three more years of 12% to 15% dividend growth?! We’re in.

Our man is the chief financial officer (CFO) of NextEra Energy (NEE). NEE is the largest developer of renewable energy in North America. It’s one of the fastest dividend growers in the utility space.

NEE is one of those great dividend stocks that is rarely cheap because everyone knows it’s awesome.… Read more

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Everywhere you look, there’s a subscription service begging for your attention: from Netflix (NFLX) to cable TV … and even a Hot Sauce of the Month Club.

Pretty well everyone has at least one, and many folks have several. One study showed that 7% of American households have six or more services for video alone!

There’s a reason why companies charge recurring revenues, of course. It’s a great business model to hit up our credit cards monthly.

But great businesses don’t always translate to rewarding stocks. We contrarian dividend seekers tend to steer clear of the streamers because:

  1. They pay no dividends!

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Why chase the market when we can let 15% per year—every year—come to us?

This is the perfect time to buy what I call “hidden yield” investments. These are stocks that dish out dividends today. But, more notably, they have an important catalyst coming in the year ahead that will help boost their stock prices.

This trigger is so powerful that it sends these stocks sailing by 15% or more per year, every year. Which is truly great when other equities and even bonds are getting buried around us.

We’ll talk about these stocks and their “dividend spark” in a moment.… Read more

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Utility dividends haven’t been this generous in years. Thank you, stock market selloff!

These yield machines have been expensive for a while. Today, utility stocks are finally cheap—and their dividends are finally high enough to get our attention!

That makes right now our time to buy. The Federal Reserve created this deal, and hey, the Fed could easily take it away with any hint of a policy pivot.

History tells us that cheap utility stocks don’t stay in the bargain bin for long. I’m staring at two in particular that are likely to bounce back next year. Both of these stocks are likely to deliver double-digit payout hikes, too.… Read more

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