Readers often ask me how to build a portfolio that holds its own in down times but hands them more income than the measly 2.6% long-term US Treasuries pay.

So today I’ll show you how to do that. With the 4 bargain-priced closed-end funds (CEFs) I’ll show you below, which also boast strong track records and high income streams, you can keep the dividends flowing, regardless of the market’s tantrums.

An added plus? Your nest egg will be spread across asset classes, giving you extra protection.

Buy No. 1: A Buffett-Friendly CEF With Big Upside

With a long-term average total return of around 8.5% per year, US stocks need to be at the heart of any income portfolio. And the beauty of closed-end funds (CEFs) is that you can get a return like that, along with a large cash stream you can reinvest or use to pay your bills.

Start with the Boulder Growth & Income Fund (BIF), which trades at a 15.3% discount to net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio), despite its large exposure to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) and several other high-quality value and growth companies. That exposure has resulted in BIF’s NAV doing this in the last 3 years:

A Strong and Steady Return

Another great thing about BIF is that, thanks to its value-investing principles, it can bounce back from a recession faster than the S&P 500, as we saw in 2007-09:

A Quick, Sustained Recovery

And since BIF gives you a 3.7% dividend stream, versus the 0% Berkshire pays, you can harness the power of value investing without sacrificing income with this fund.

Buy No. 2: Big Yields From Safe Utilities

But let’s go for even more income and security with the 6.3%-yielding Gabelli Global Utility & Income Trust (GLU), which has a massive 9.7% discount to NAV that has opened up only in the last 6 months:

A Buy Window Opens

This has created a buying opportunity for a fund that hasn’t cut its dividend since its IPO over a decade ago—something only a select few CEFs can say.

The result? Steady income through thick and thin, with limited downside, thanks to GLU’s huge discount. That should make income investors happy no matter what the economy does.

Buy No. 3: Muni Bonds for Low-Stress, Tax-Free Dividends

Municipal bonds are a great way to get a large income stream no matter the economic climate, because they have a government guarantee and one of the lowest default rates in the world—less than 0.01%!

A big problem with many muni CEFs, however, is that they each tend to focus on one state, and bad news hitting that state can hit these funds’ values quickly, even if the fund’s fundamentals remain strong.

That’s why a nationally diversified and deeply discounted fund, like the DTF Tax-Free Income Fund (DTF), makes sense for our 4-fund portfolio. This fund doesn’t have more than 15% of its assets in any one state, and its top holdings (issues by Florida and California) are from states seeing rising population growth and higher per-capita income, resulting in improving budget conditions:

Source: Duff & Phelps Investment Management Company

That diversified portfolio helps secure the fund’s 4.5% dividend yield, which is tax-free at the federal and state levels for many Americans.

Plus, DTF’s strong management team has driven the fund to far outperform the muni-bond index fund, the iShares National Municipal Bond ETF (MUB), which so many investors depend on, despite its pathetic 2.4% dividend yield:

Beating the Index by a Wide Margin

DTF’s outperformance and strong income stream should come at a premium; instead, the fund trades at a 12.3% discount to NAV! That’s far below its 6.7% average discount over the last decade, and it makes DTF a great, safe buy for muni exposure. And since it has over 150 issues from 32 states, this fund alone gets you the diversification you need.

“Instant Portfolio” Buy No. 4: 7.4% Dividends From Quality Corporate Bonds

Finally, let’s round out our portfolio with corporate bonds for reliable income. We can do that with the Western Asset Global Corporate Defined Opportunities Fund (GDO). With an 8.7% discount to NAV and a 7.4% dividend yield, this is a rare treat for an income lover—especially since it’s been crushing the index fund for nearly a decade. (See a pattern here? Index-busting CEFs are everywhere.)

Trouncing the Index Again

GDO’s recent price slide handed us that nice discount (it was trading at a 5.5% discount at the start of 2018). That markdown also means the fund’s dividend will be more sustainable going forward, because while the yield on its share price is 7.4%, the yield on its underlying NAV is a significantly lower 6.8%.

That’s a significantly lower figure, and it’s the one that really matters when it comes to dividend reliability. So we can look forward to enjoying GDO’s outsized dividend stream and some nice price upside here, to boot.

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Each of these 16 all-stars is poised for fast double-digit gains. PLUS they throw off SAFE yields up to 9.66%!

That upside and dividend income top anything you’ll see from the 4 picks I just showed you. Plus, these 16 incredible funds give you even more diversification (and safety), because they hold everything from US stocks to real estate investment trusts (REITs), floating-rate bonds and preferred shares.

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As the stock market indexes continue with history’s longest bull market, investors are becoming concerned that the bull is on its last legs and they need to start preparing for the next bear market. I am not predicting the end of the bear market. Nobody can. What you can do is start to add stocks to your portfolio that are more resistant to economic recession and stock market bear markets.

It’s important to understand that a stock market bear market will take down the value of all stocks, with very few exceptions. The companies you want to own are the ones whose businesses will continue to operate, generate strong revenue, and grow through a recession or bear market. These companies can continue to pay dividends and the share prices will recover after the down turn. You as an income focused investor continue to collect dividends while other investors worry about how they are going to recover from their losses.

Our search for recession/bear market resistant dividend stocks focuses on the business operations. We want companies whose operations should at least stay level and hopefully thrive in all economic conditions. These will be more conservative income stocks, with the trade off of lower current yields. Here are three for your further research.

More: Buy These 3 High-Yielders with Fast Growing Dividends and International Exposure

National Retail Properties, Inc. (NYSE: NNN) is a traditional triple-net lease REIT. The company owns over 2,800 (up by 300 in the last year) free-standing, single tenant retail properties. most of the REIT’s tenants are in business that cannot be hurt or replaced by online sellers.

The top types of businesses are convenience stores, casual and fast food restaurants, auto service shops, fitness outlets, movie theaters and auto parts stores. These are businesses that are recession resistant and would continue to make lease payments through an economic downturn.

NNN is a Dividend Aristocrat and has increased its dividend for 29 consecutive years. You can count on dividend increases of about 4% each year.

The current dividend is 72% of FFO and the yield is 4.3%.

Physicians Realty Trust (NYSE: DOC) is a healthcare REIT that focuses its portfolio on medical office, physician group practice clinics, outpatient care, ambulatory surgery centers, specialized hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and small specialized long-term acute care hospitals. The company owns 249 properties located in 30 states. Ninety-two percent of the holdings are medical office buildings. Even through tough economic times, the healthcare sector will still need its offices and care facilities.

Unlike many REITs in the healthcare sector Physicians Realty Trust avoids the more economically sensitive senior living type of facilities. This REIT’s business operations produced highly stable cash flow which allows you to count on the dividend through any economic downturn.

Current yield is 5.25%.

Pay Your Bills for LIFE with These Dividend Stocks

Get your hands on my most comprehensive, step-by-step dividend plan yet. In just a few minutes, you will have a 36-month road map that could generate $4,804 (or more!) per month for life. It's the perfect supplement to Social Security and works even if the stock market tanks. Over 6,500 retirement investors have already followed the recommendations I've laid out.

Click here for complete details to start your plan today.

Source: Investors Alley 

No one likes digging through pages of regulatory filings, but they can often yield valuable information.

For example, institutional investors with at least $100 million of assets must file a 13F form with the Securities and Exchange Commission once a quarter. Think of this as a quarterly scorecard or a window into the holdings of some of the most successful and often secretive investors in the market.

Should you follow suit and piggy-back some of these trades? Well, it’s certainly cheaper than the $1 million minimum buy-in it often takes to invest with the most successful hedge funds, if you’re even invited.

However, there are two important caveats with 13F’s: First, the data can be stale. Holdings at the end of the second quarter aren’t often reported until mid-August, which is an eternity in some investing circles. In addition, a lot of these investors keep their cards close to the vest, so you can’t be entirely sure the purchase is a vote of confidence in the dividend.

The following two stocks have been gleaned from the pages of recent 13F filings and offer readers the opportunity to invest alongside some of the most successful managers on Wall Street.

Top Investment Manager Stock No. 1: New Leader Can Resuscitate Growth

Plains Group (PAGP) is the general partner for energy midstream operator, Plains All-American Pipeline (PAA). The company’s underlying assets transport and store crude oil and natural gas across North America. While commodity prices can be volatile from one-quarter to the next, 93% of Plains’ business is fee-based, providing more stability.

Plains Group was recently listed as a new position of Keith Meister’s Corvex Management. Meister was previously the chief executive officer of Icahn Enterprises (IEP), a vehicle of noted activist investor, Carl Icahn.

Meister and Corvex have yet to show any activist intentions with the company, which is already going through a transition. Plains Group yields 4.6%, in part because of a 45% cut in its quarterly distribution last year. Willie Chiang, COO of the company, is also stepping up to become chief executive officer later this year. He is replacing Greg Armstrong, who was at the helm of Plains for more than two decades.

In the meantime the company’s investment thesis is two-fold: grow its midstream business in the Permian Basin and reduce debt on the balance sheet. Management made progress on both fronts in the second quarter and boosted its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) guidance by 4% earlier this month.

Plains is seeing higher growth in its supply and logistics division and has cut debt by over $1 billion in the past four quarters. Management expects 179% coverage of the dividend this year and is targeting another double-digit increase in adjusted EBITDA in 2019. The company still has progress to make in the coming quarters, but could soon begin rebuilding its dividend.

Top Investment Manager Stock No. 2: Propane Dividend Could Still Burn Investors

Ferrellgas Partners (FGP) could certainly be seen as a contrarian pick, as the master limited partnership has been as volatile as the propane the company sells under the popular Blue Rhino brand. The shares trade in the low-single digits, sport a 13% dividend yield and recently showed up as a new holding of Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors.

Whatever potential value Cooperman and Omega see in Ferrellgas, it likely isn’t in the lofty dividend yield. Similar to Plains Group, the company slashed its payout in late 2016, but even the current payout of $0.10 a quarter could be in peril.

Earlier this month, management declared the next distribution to be paid in September, which carried an ominous warning. Ferrellgas isn’t generating enough cash to cover the fixed charges of its $2 billion mountain of debt. Because of these covenants in the bonds, the company has said it may not be able to pay its dividend beginning in December.

Bondholders always receive their interest payments before stockholders get paid dividends. This is especially the case of Ferrellgas, whose balance sheet is “upside down” and has negative shareholder equity.

Following Carl Icahn or your other favorite investors into new stocks is a popular strategy. But buyer beware— the reliability of the dividend yield may be secondary to these top managers. They are often placing bets in the midst of a diversified portfolio and willing to wait several quarters, if not years to see a positive return.

If, however, you’re nearing retirement, or have already retired and are living off income from your investments, there are better bargains to be had for secure 7% to 8% yields with upside and monthly payouts to boot.

Like These Plays: The 8 Best 8% Dividends with Big Upside to Buy Today

The biggest investment managers and Wall Street brokers say you can’t have both the income and safety of bonds and the upside of stocks. You either have to pay hefty fees or be “lucky” enough for the privilege to be invited to invest with them.

They’re wrong. They don’t realize that the nine bond funds in our Contrarian Income Report portfolio have delivered average annualized returns of 23.9% (including dividends)!

Our three top picks today are poised to continue the tradition. These funds are a cornerstone of our 8% “no withdrawal” retirement strategy, which lets retirees rely entirely on dividend income and leave their principal 100% intact.

Well that’s not exactly right. Their principal is more than 100% intact thanks to price gains! Which means principal is actually 110% intact after year 1, and so on.

To do this, we seek out closed-end funds that:

• Pay 8% or better…
• Have well-funded distributions…
• Trade at meaningful discounts to their NAV…
• And know how to make their shareholders money.

And we talk to management, because online research isn’t enough. We also track insider buying to make sure these guys have real skin in the game.

Today we like three “blue chip” closed-end funds in particular. And wait ‘til you see their yields! These “slam dunk” income plays pay 8.5%, 8.7% and even 8.9% dividends.

Plus, they trade at 10-15% discounts to their net asset value (NAV) today. Which means they’re perfect for your retirement portfolio because your downside risk is minimal. Even if the market takes a tumble, these top-notch funds will simply trade flat… and we’ll still collect those fat dividends!

Editor's Note: The stock market is way up – and that’s terrible news for us dividend investors. Yields haven’t been this low in decades! But there are still plenty of great opportunities to secure meaningful income if you know where to look. Brett Owens' latest report reveals how you can easily (and safely) rake in 8%+ dividends and never worry about drawing down your capital again. Click here for full details!

Source: Contrarian Outlook

My 36 Month Accelerated Income Plan is a guide for individuals who see retirement looming in a few short years and who want to build up their retirement savings as much as possible. The plan provides a systematic approach that can be started at any time and does not require timing the market. A recent subscriber question about picking three stocks to start her 36 Month Accelerated Income Plan was the catalyst for this article.

The plan is based on using dividend reinvestment of high yield stocks. After a decade of very low interest rates from most types of income assets, the investing world has lost touch with the power of compound growth when the yields are high enough. The 36 Month Accelerated Income Plan uses high yield stocks and automatic reinvestment of dividends to quickly grow the income potential of money you have set aside for income in your retirement years.

One example used in the 36 Month Accelerated Income Plan shows how a $150,000 starting amount could be producing a monthly income of $3,300 after just three years. That’s $39,600 in annual income. Here are some of the success factors that you need to keep in mind and employ.

• Higher yield is better. Compound growth is powered by yield. For example, $10,000 compounds to $11,600 in three years at 5%. It grows to $13,450 at 10%, a 115% gain in growth.
• The dividend payments from the selected stocks must be expected to continue for the three years and longer. This is the hard part of the strategy, and you may need to change stocks if individual company business results change.
• The plan focuses on compounding the income stream, not the account value. This means that temporary share price drops are a good thing, allowing you to buy more shares with the reinvested dividends when share prices are down, boosting your income at an even rate.
• The focus will be on the dividend income growth, which will become retirement income in the future. That income will compound even faster than your account value will grow.
• You can boost your retirement results by making regular added investments to your high-yield stock holdings.

To help you get started, here are three stocks with yields greater than 10% and a current positive outlook that the dividend rates will continue.

Uniti Group Inc. (Nasdaq: UNIT) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns telecommunications network assets. The company was spun-off by Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) in 2015 to own a large portion of WIN’s fiber and copper wireline network.

Since its IPO, UNIT has grown through the acquisition of additional fiber networks and cell tower assets. Controversy around how Windstream spun-out UNIT has lead to the current low share price/high yield of UNIT. Those problems should not affect UNIT and the current dividend rate is well covered by distributable cash flow.

The shares currently yield 11.6%.

New Residential Investment Corp. (NYSE: NRZ) is a finance REIT that owns a diversified portfolio of residential mortgage related assets. This has been one of the great high-yield investments of the last five years.

The company invests at the edges of the mortgage business including mortgage servicing rights and mortgage backed securities call rights.

Over the last few years, New Residential has expanded its ability to become a full service mortgage origination and servicing companies. These new capabilities have not yet made a meaningful difference to the business results, but they will.

The NRZ dividend has grown slowly and steadily. The stock currently yields 10.9%.

The InfraCap MLP ETF (NYSE: AMZA) is an exchange traded fund (ETF) that owns an actively managed portfolio of master limited partnerships (MLPs). The MLP sector is comprised of publicly traded partnerships that provide energy infrastructure services such as pipeline, storage terminals, export facilities and processing services.

AMZA boosts the already high yields of the MLP sector by selling call options on the fund’s portfolio holdings. The returns of AMZA have been comparable to other MLP focused funds. Admittedly, the sector has been in a bear market since early 2016 and is just recently started to recovery. The options selling supported high yield boosts the effect of dividend reinvestment with this fund, leading to outperformance when using a reinvestment strategy.

AMZA currently yields 16%.

 

Pay Your Bills for LIFE with These Dividend Stocks

Get your hands on my most comprehensive, step-by-step dividend plan yet. In just a few minutes, you will have a 36-month road map that could generate $4,804 (or more!) per month for life. It's the perfect supplement to Social Security and works even if the stock market tanks. Over 6,500 retirement investors have already followed the recommendations I've laid out.

Click here for complete details to start your plan today.

If you want to clobber the stock market – and double your money every two or three years – then buying companies with accelerating dividends is the easiest and safest way to do it.

And I’ve got good news for you: there are nine blue chip payers likely to raise their dividends next month. So why not “front run” this good news and consider these shares now?

The benefit of dividend hikes? Getting a fatter income stream is an obvious reason, but it’s just the start. A rising payout acts like a lever on a company’s share price, prying it higher and higher with every single dividend hike.

The pattern is plain as day in this chart of NextEra Energy (NEE), a supposedly “boring” utility that’s been quietly sending its shareholders bigger and bigger dividend checks over the past five years.

Look at how NEE’s stock has jumped with each and every dividend hike NextEra has delivered—and how its latest monster payout hikes have magnified those gains:

Bigger Dividend Hike, Fatter Share Price Pop

NextEra just delivered a 13% dividend hike earlier this year. But you and I can do even better by focusing on stocks that are due for a payout hike ASAP. Here are nine raise announcements we’ll probably see next month.

American Express (AXP)
Dividend Yield: 1.4%

American Express (AXP) announced in June that the Federal Reserve gave its adjusted capital plan the green light. As part of that plan, American Express will buy back $3.4 billion in shares between Q3 2018 and Q2 2019, and it’ll boost its dividend by 11% to 39 cents per share – the company’s seventh consecutive year of payout hikes. The official declaration should come sometime in the final week of September.

Another feather in the cap for AXP, which has recovered from its Costco (COST)-sparked woes in 2016, rallying for nearly two years to its current all-time-high perch.

American Express (AXP): Dividend Growth Leads the Charge!

Microsoft (MSFT)
Dividend Yield: 1.6%

Microsoft (MSFT) is the poster child for what should happen with a faithful dividend-growth stock – as the payout expands, so should the stock price.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) Price Has Finally Caught Up With Its Dividend

And come mid-September, the IT blue chip will likely announce its annual dividend increase.

Microsoft closed out its fiscal year with a boffo fourth-quarter report released in July, announcing 17% top-line growth, 11% bottom-line growth and better-than-expected profits and revenues. Better still, its fiscal 2019 guidance surprised to the upside. And even after cranking up capital expenditures to build out its burgeoning cloud business, Microsoft still generated $7.4 billion in free cash flow.

Microsoft has gobs of money. It could do with a significant payout bump – the yield has been crushed by a 145% run in three years (a wonderful problem to have, if you’re an existing shareholder) – on what would be its 15th consecutive increase. It also may be ready to update its $40 billion buyback program initiated two years ago.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
Dividend Yield: 1.9%

Like American Express, JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) next dividend increase is, ahem, money in the bank.

The Fed approved JPMorgan’s capital plan near the end of June, and that included an absolute whopper of a dividend-and-buyback package. JPMorgan will buy back an impressive $20.7 billion worth of shares between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019. But the real eye-opener is a 43% spike in the payout to 80 cents per share.

JPMorgan has been the cream of the big-bank crop over the past five years, doubling over that time as it has recovered and retooled following the 2007-09 financial crisis. JPMorgan has benefitted from (and will continue to enjoy the fruits of) continued economic expansion as well as a return to gradually rising interest rates … and shareholders aren’t being left behind. The stock has rocketed 120% higher over the past five years, and its dividend (including the expected hike, which should be announced in the second half of September) has grown 47% in that time.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM): One of the Best Big Bank Stocks

American Tower (AMT)
Dividend Yield: 2.0%

My readers should be plenty familiar with telecommunications infrastructure REIT American Tower (AMT), as it regularly shows up in my lists of dividend stocks to watch for payout hikes, so we’ll just do a quick check-up.

AMT isn’t setting the world on fire with a 6% year-to-date return. But when you look at the flat return for the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ), it’s clear this REIT is doing something right. And so it has! Second-quarter funds from operations (FFO) of $1.90 per share easily clubbed Wall Street’s expectations for $1.78. That came on revenues of $1.78 billion that also climbed over analysts’ estimates.

But American Tower’s draw is its impressive streak of 26 consecutive quarterly dividend increases – every three months since 2012, AMT has upped the ante like clockwork. Q3 should be no different, with the company typically making its announcement sometime in the middle of September.

Texas Instruments (TXN)
Dividend Yield: 2.2%

Chipmaker Texas Instruments (TXN) is another perfect example of dividend growth and capital appreciation going hand in hand:

Texas Instruments (TXN): A Chip Off the Ol’ Block

Texas Instruments, by the way, isn’t your typical chip play. When you think semiconductors, your mind probably conjures names like Intel (INTC), Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that fuel graphics and high-end computing.

Texas Instruments is, in fact, increasingly focusing on cutting-edge technologies, including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and even blockchain – the tech behind Bitcoin. But its core business is the uninteresting but very necessary analog chips that power simple gadgets such as calculators and alarm clocks.

This one-two punch puts Texas Instruments in most of the devices in your house, your workplace – you name it. That has enabled this blue-chip chipmaker to explode like a growthy startup, all while fueling fantastic expansion in the dividend.

The next chapter in this dividend-growth story should come in mid-late September.

McDonald’s (MCD)
Dividend Yield: 2.5%

McDonald’s (MCD) smacked down the naysayers in 2017, showing that the world’s most ubiquitous fast-food chain still had gas in the tank with a red-hot 44% gain. But the Golden Arches have come back to earth in 2018, dropping 10% to make it one of the worst performers in the Dow.

But I can’t find much fault with the company. McDonald’s has posted earnings beats in both of its quarterly reports so far this year. Yes, same-store sales limped in a little bit for Q2, in part because the company’s $1-$2-$3 Menu hasn’t resonated the way analysts hoped it would. But I love the fast-food chain’s vow to become “more aggressive” on value and launch a “2-for-$5 mix-and-match” offering.

There’s little room for complaint on the dividend front, too. McDonald’s is a Dividend Aristocrat with 41 consecutive payout hikes under its belt – another raise, likely in the back half of September, would be No. 42. And MCD’s raises lately might not have been spectacular, but they’re decent, at about 25% growth since 2014.

OGE Energy (OGE)
Dividend Yield: 3.6%

No list of dividend-paying companies is truly complete without a utility stock, and that’s what we have in OGE Energy (OGE).

OGE isn’t as familiar as names like Southern Co. (SO) and Duke Energy (DUK). But its primary subsidiary, Oklahoma Gas & Electric (hence the OGE), serves more than 843,000 customers across Oklahoma and Arkansas. It also holds both limited partner and general partner interest in Enable Midstream Partners, LP (ENBL), which owns natural gas and crude oil infrastructure.

It’s also a little growth monster for the utility space. While the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU) is up just 2% in 2018, OGE shares have ripped off a market-beating 11% run. That came on the back of a stellar fiscal Q1 report that saw residential revenues grow 5.1% to prop up the top line by 8%, and a massive 50% pop in earnings to 27 cents per share – far better than the 17 cents Wall Street’s pros expected.

OGE Energy is no slouch on the dividend front, either. The payout has exploded by 48% since 2014, and you can expect another improvement to the dividend in the last week or two of September.

Can OGE Energy’s (OGE) Generosity Push Shares Over the Top?

Verizon Communications (VZ)
Dividend Yield: 4.5%

Telecom giant Verizon Communications (VZ) hasn’t exactly been blowing the doors off their hinges with its annual payout hike. While you can find plenty of companies averaging double-digit dividend growth every year, Verizon has managed to grow its distribution by only 11% since 2013 – a snail’s pace.

It’s understandable. Operating and free cash flow have been trending downwards for years as the telecom industry has grown completely saturated, forcing the likes of AT&T (T) and Verizon to slug it out against lower-cost providers such as T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S).

That said, investors could be in for something a little special this time around. The change in corporate tax rate benefits just about every U.S. business in one way or another, but it does wonders for companies such as Verizon that derive almost all of their revenues domestically. VZ’s corporate tax rate should sink from 35% to between 24%-26%. While Verizon still has other cash considerations, such as building out its 5G infrastructure, the telecom may, in either early September or very late August, take the rare opportunity to give shareholders something to cheer about.

Because sub-5% stock gains in five years sure aren’t doing the trick.

Verizon (VZ) Is Crawling Along … Just Like Its Dividend

Realty Income (O)
Dividend Yield: 4.6%

Realty Income (O) already has secured its place in the minds of investors as “The Monthly Dividend Company” – not just by paying monthly dividends, but by advertising this fact everywhere, including on the front page of its website.

But in September, it also will be eligible to join the ranks of the Dividend Aristocrats via its 25th consecutive payout hike.

Realty Income (O), while one of the most trusted REITs on Wall Street, hasn’t had the most promising 2018. Shares have barely budged northward, but it must be Wall Street following the narrative of the retailpocalypse rather than reality. In Q2, this retail REIT reported an increase in occupancy – 98.7% that was better year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) climbed 5%, too.

That surely will help Realty Income afford its 84th consecutive quarterly increase, which you can expect to be announced sometime around the second week of September.

7 Dividend Growth Stocks with 112% Price Upside or More

You’ve probably noticed that a lot of these dividend-growth dynamos have pretty chintzy-looking yields. That’s OK. In fact, that’s a “hidden” bullish signal.

You see, the very best dividend stocks rarely show high yields because their prices keep rising in line with the increasing payments.

Most people don’t realize this. But those of us who do realize it stand to profit handsomely and almost automatically!

It’s a simple three-step process:

Step 1. You invest a set amount of money into one of these “hidden yield” stocks and immediately start getting regular returns on the order of 3%, 4%, or maybe more.

That alone is better than you can get from just about any other conservative investment right now.

Step 2. Over time, your dividend payments go up so you’re eventually earning 8%, 9%, or 10% a year on your original investment.

That should not only keep pace with inflation or rising interest rates, it should stay ahead of them.

Step 3. As your income is rising, other investors are also bidding up the price of your shares to keep pace with the increasing yields.

This combination of rising dividends and capital appreciation is what gives you the potential to earn 12% or more on average with almost no effort or active investing at all.

I’ve scoured thousands of stocks out there right now, looking for the very best companies that have both rising dividends and strong buyback programs in place … the kind of stocks that could easily spin off annual total returns of 12%, 17%, even 25% or more … doubling your money in very short order.

Right now, at this very moment, there are 7 in particular that I think you should consider buying.

They stand to do well no matter what the broad market does … regardless of what happens in Washington … and irrespective of interest rate trends.

Editor's Note: The stock market is way up – and that’s terrible news for us dividend investors. Yields haven’t been this low in decades! But there are still plenty of great opportunities to secure meaningful income if you know where to look. Brett Owens' latest report reveals how you can easily (and safely) rake in 8%+ dividends and never worry about drawing down your capital again. Click here for full details!

You’ve no doubt seen tons of articles splashed across the Web (over)hyping the hottest investing trends to jump on now. But which promising technologies can we actually tap for payouts and dividends (preferably today)?

The “mainstream” list is endless: cryptocurrencies, marijuana stocks—even gene editing (where the white coats actually alter DNA to wipe out diseases like cystic fibrosis).

I hope you’re not taking the bait, because gambling on shaky themes like these can put a huge dent in your nest egg. Check out the stomach-churning ride pot stock Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) has been on this year:

Aurora’s Bad Trip

That nasty fall even includes a 19% gain last week after Constellation Brands (STZ) invested $5 billion in Canopy Growth (CGC), the biggest marijuana stock by market cap.

And don’t even get me started on Bitcoin!

Bitcoin Crushes Retirement Dreams

Of course, we know neither of these wagers will put dividend cash in our pockets.

Big-Picture Thinking Is Key

That’s why, if you want to profit from huge trends remaking society, you need to zero in on megatrends like exploding energy demand, surging online shopping and retiring baby boomers. Shifts like these will power our price gains and dividends (with yields up to 9.2%, as I’ll show you below)—for decades.

Today we’re going to dive into 4 of these megatrends, plus my 4 top stock picks for cashing in on each one, starting with…

The Megatrend: The Web Beats Brick and Mortar

If you watch CNBC, you’ve may have heard Mad Money host Jim Cramer preach about the stay-at-home economy, where more folks entertain themselves, shop and order meals from home instead of going out.

And he’s right.

You only need to look at the sales of Netflix (NFLX), in blue below, and Amazon.com (AMZN), in red, over the last five years compared to their brick-and-mortar counterparts, AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) and Wal-Mart (WMT).

Online Sellers Pull Ahead

Too bad many of Cramer’s top “stay-at-home” stocks, like Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) and ConAgra Brands (CAG)—the latter due to its frozen-food business—pay low (or no) dividends. Heck, CAG even recently cut its payout!

CAG’s Stale Dividend

That’s far from the case for my favorite way to play this trend.

The Stock: Duke Realty

Imagine being Amazon’s landlord—collecting rent as the e-commerce giant spreads across the world … filling your warehouses as it does.

Well, imagine no more, because you can start (indirectly) collecting those checks through Duke Realty (DRE), a 46-year-old real estate investment trust (REIT) with 499 warehouses in 20 markets.

Amazon is Duke’s No. 1 tenant, and the REIT knows its best customer well, having worked with the online retailer for more than a decade:

A “Prime” E-Commerce Play

Source: Duke Realty NAREIT REIT Week Presentation

You are only getting a 2.8% dividend yield here, but Duke has been raising the payout in recent years and handed shareholders a nice $0.85 special dividend last December, after unloading its medical-office business.

That was a canny move that frees up management to smoke out more opportunities in its core warehouse operation.

The payout was the second special dividend in three years—and Duke can do much more, with the regular dividend eating up just 52% of funds from operations (FFO, the REIT equivalent of earnings per share), a very low ratio for a REIT.

Finally, Duke trades at 21.7-times the midpoint of management’s just-boosted 2018 FFO forecast. That’s still a decent level for a company that truly is Amazon’s landlord. You won’t find a more direct tie to the online shopping megatrend than that—and it will light up Duke’s share price and dividend for decades to come.

The Megatrend: Aging Baby Boomers

No matter what happens with the Affordable Care Act, we can be sure of one thing: healthcare spending will keep spiking higher. There’s no other way for it to go!

According to recent numbers from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, the nation will spend 5.5% more on healthcare every year through 2026. By then, we’ll be dropping $5.6 trillion on it annually.

Much of that rise will come from huge increases in costs for Medicare (up 7.4% annually) and Medicaid (up 5.8% a year). I don’t have to tell you who’s driving that increase: boomers, 10,000 of whom are turning 65 every day.

The Stock: Physicians Realty Trust

Our play to watch on retiring boomers is Physicians Realty Trust (DOC), which has 249 medical-office buildings, almost all of which (96%) are rented out to doctors, hospitals and healthcare systems.

One thing I love about DOC is its long tenant list, with no one client chipping in more than 6% of annualized base rent. That means the REIT avoids getting stuck with a big, trouble-prone tenant, a problem that’s beggared healthcare REITs in the past.

Here’s another plus: its tenants specialize in the services elderly folks need most, like orthopedic surgery and oncology, so you can bet its buildings will stay full.

Which brings me to the trust’s dividend, which clocks in at a gaudy 5.5%. And before you ask, yes, that payout is safe, accounting for a manageable (especially for a well-run REIT like DOC) 86% of FFO.

The real kicker is that you can buy in at just 16-times FFO. That’s a smoking deal, given DOC’s top-notch portfolio, price upside from the “gray wave” that’s surging our way, and it’s superb 5.5% dividend.

The Megatrend: Soaring Energy Demand

The strong global economy is goosing energy use, with demand rising 2.1% last year, doubling 2016’s rate, according to the International Energy Association.

All sources of power saw higher demand: coal, natural gas, oil and renewables. And that trend will continue: the US Energy Information Administration sees global energy demand spiking 28% by 2040.

The Stock: Duff & Phelps Global Utility Fund

Our play here is the Duff & Phelps Global Utility Fund (DPG), a closed-end fund (CEF) that owns major US utilities like NextEra Energy (NEE) and Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), along with big global names like French electric utility ENGIE (ENGI) and Canadian telecom BCE (BCE).

Two numbers stick out here. The first is DPG’s outsized 9.2% dividend, which is as consistent as they come.

A Retirement-Friendly Payout

Source: CEFConnect.com

The other? DPG trades at a ridiculous 10.1% discount to net asset value (NAV). That’s another way of saying that its market price is lagging the value of its portfolio by 10.1%. And since this fund has traded at narrower discounts (and even premiums) in the past, we can expect price upside as that markdown narrows.

But even if it stays where it is, you’re still getting 9.2% every year in cash. That discount also helps steady the dividend. Because while DPG’s yield on market price is 9.2%, its yield on NAV is 8.2%, a figure that’s easier for management to cover with investment returns.

The Megatrend: US Economic Growth

Finally, while I’d never go as far as to say recessions are a thing of the past, as my colleague Michael Foster recently reported, US economic numbers are sparkling. And I’m betting we’ve got plenty of room to run.

To wit:

• The economy grew 4.1% in the second quarter, the fastest since 2014.
• The unemployment rate fell to 3.9%, near 18-year lows.
• According to FactSet, 73% of S&P 500 companies are reporting second-quarter sales that top analysts’ expectations.

So we’re going to bet on the roaring economy with a fund that gives us “one-click” exposure to the picks of one Warren E. Buffett.

The Stock: Boulder Growth & Income Fund

You won’t find a bigger cheerleader for America’s economy than Buffett, and that

shows up in the stock portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), which is riddled with US success stories like Apple (AAPL), Costco Wholesale (COST) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

And thanks to a CEF called the Boulder Growth & Income Fund (BIF), you can get access to Berkshire itself and Buffett’s top picks, while pocketing a 3.7% dividend—more than twice the payout on the average S&P 500 stock.

The best part: BIF is far cheaper than it should be, trading at a 15% discount to NAV, which basically means you can buy every dollar of the shares BIF holds for 85 cents.

As with DPG, that markdown builds in price upside as it erodes away, as it’s been steadily doing for more than two years.

Investors Slowly Catch on to BIF

That narrowing markdown has helped BIF crush the market as a whole.

Shrinking Discount Slingshots BIF Higher

The bottom line?

I expect BIF’s discount to keep narrowing (and its outperformance to continue) as the US economy rolls on and more folks realize how easy it is to double their dividends by swapping their miserly blue chips for this Buffett-friendly fund.

That means your buy window is still open—but it may not be for long.

Yours Now: An Entire 19-Stock Portfolio With Safe Cash Payouts Up to 10.4%

As I showed you above, REITs and CEFs are the solution to your income worries if you feel trapped “grinding out” dividend income with the pathetic sub-2% payouts paid by your typical stock.

And the great thing—as you can see with BIF and DPG—is that you can often make the switch to these cash-rich dividend buys without actually switching investments!

$40,000 in Income on $500k

I’ve got 6 more life-changing dividend plays to give you—all REITs and CEFs—that tap into the same bulletproof trends as the 4 picks above, with one crucial difference:

I’ve hand-picked these 6 dividend powerhouses to give you a steady $40,000 a year in income on a $500k nest egg! That’s an 8% average yield—and it’s why I call this my “8% No-Withdrawal Portfolio.” I can’t wait to show it to you.

That’s not all, either.

Because I just released a NEW issue of my Contrarian Income Report newsletter, with fresh updates on the 19 stocks and funds in our service’s portfolio, which hands our savvy CIR members massive yields up to 10.4%!

I want to send all 19 of these cash-rich plays your way, too. This latest issue just went out to members a few days ago, and your copy is waiting for you now.

Editor's Note: The stock market is way up – and that’s terrible news for us dividend investors. Yields haven’t been this low in decades! But there are still plenty of great opportunities to secure meaningful income if you know where to look. Brett Owens' latest report reveals how you can easily (and safely) rake in 8%+ dividends and never worry about drawing down your capital again. Click here for full details!

Source: Contrarian Outlook 

High yield stocks come out of a range of different business sectors. You may be aware of business development companies (BDCs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), and master limited partnerships—MLPs. Also, on high yield investor radars will be closed-end funds (CEFs) and leveraged ETFs. For an attractive yield combined with a high level of safety, the best high yield stocks come from a subsector of a subsector of one of these three letter descriptors.

REITs operate under a pass-through tax rule that allows a company to not pay income taxes if its business involves the ownership or financing of real estate and at least 90% of net income is paid to investors as dividends. The REIT sector can be divided into equity REITs and finance REITs. Equity REITs are companies that own commercial real estate. These companies usually specialize in a specific type of property such as healthcare, hotels, office buildings, warehouses, and apartments.

Finance REITs operate on the lending side of real estate. A finance REIT may be a lender or just a company that owns a portfolio of mortgage backed securities (MBS). A lot of finance REITs will be a combination of originating new mortgages, packaging mortgages for sale and fee income, holding loans in a portfolio, and owning MBS.

Finance REITs separate into two categories. These companies typically focus on either the residential side of mortgage lending or on commercial property financing. The residential mortgage side takes a lot of interest rate risk to be able to turn 4% home loans into a 10% stock dividend yield. I am not a fan of this business model. The commercial mortgage REITs, on the other hand, give investors an attractive combination of high current yield and a financially conservative business model.

Commercial finance REITs have these attractive attributes:

• Commercial mortgages are written at low loan to value amounts. These companies typically have portfolios with an overall 65% LTV.
• Commercial mortgages are almost always adjustable rate. This means that if interest rates increase, so will the REIT’s interest income.
• Commercial property lending requires a high level of expertise and flexibility. This allows the REITs to generate higher yields on the loans they make.
• A commercial finance REIT can generate attractive yields on equity using a very moderate amount of leverage.

Here are three commercial finance REITs that will put some serious yield into your income portfolio.

Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: STWD) is one of the largest commercial lenders of any business type – including banks. The company currently has a $12.6 billion loan portfolio with a 62% loan to value. Since launching in 2009 the company has put out almost $40 billion in loans and investments with zero realized losses.

In recent years, Starwood has acquired the largest commercial mortgage special servicer. This acquisition has produced growth in CMBS origination and investments. The company also owns a $2.7 billion equity commercial property portfolio that generates 9% to 12% cash on cash returns. Management constantly looks for investment opportunities both in and out of the commercial mortgage business.

STWD current yields 8.4%.

Ladder Capital Corp (NYSE: LADR) uses a three-prong approach to its investment portfolio. The three legs are commercial mortgage loans, which account for 75% of the company’s capital allocation; commercial real estate equity investments for 12%; and commercial MBS bonds accounting for 8%. The business plan is that the three groups shift as more or less attractive through the commercial real estate cycle. Leverage is a comfortable 2.7 times equity. Since it paid its first dividend for Q1 2015, Ladder has steadily increased the quarterly payout at an average 8% annual growth rate.

The shares currently yield 7.7%.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE: BXMT) is a pure commercial mortgage lender. The REIT receives high quality mortgage lending leads from its sponsor, The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX).

As of its 2018 first quarter earnings, BXMT had a $12.1 billion portfolio of senior mortgage loans. 94% of the portfolio is floating rate. The loans were at 62% loan to the value of the underlying properties. In the first quarter the company originated $1.9 billion of new loans, while $900 million of principal was paid off. Leverage is 2.3 times debt to equity.

Blackstone management states that each 1% increase in LIBOR will grow annual net income by $0.24 per share. The stock currently yields 7.5%.

In recent months, I have added two newer, still in the growth phase, commercial mortgage REITs to my Dividend Hunter recommendations list. If you like the idea of high yield and growing dividends, check out a subscription for these two winners and more of my picks.

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Source: Investors Alley 

Moe Ansari, host of the popular Market Wrap radio show and podcast, asked me on air:

“Brett, how do you find dividend paying stocks that will double your money?”

He was intrigued enough by my analysis to ask me on his show, but I knew he was a bit skeptical as well. And that’s perfectly normal – even experienced investors and money managers like Moe think of dividend payers in terms of their current yields only.

Price appreciation potential often gets ignored, and the thought of achieving 100%+ profits from a safe dividend payer sounds absurd. But smart investors bank their payouts while their stocks double in price.

(Want to hear me describe this strategy in detail? Click this link for the full interview.)

Subscribers to my Hidden Yields service know the three-step formula that I explained to Moe well. In fact, our “dividend doubling” portfolio has earned 23.3% yearly gains since inception three years ago – which means we’re closing in on 100% profits already.

How’d we do it buying safe dividend paying stocks? Let me walk you through the simple three-step formula. (And shortly I’ll show you how to get your hands on my latest research, which features ten dividend stocks likely to double, too.)

Step 1: Buy Dividend Growth for 10%+ Annual Gains

On the show we discussed Verizon (VZ), which has piqued the interest of many income investors lately. The stock yields 4.6%, and the dividend is covered by monthly cell phone bills across America.

Here’s the problem buying Verizon in hopes of a double – it’s not going to happen. Its 4.6% yield would get us repaid in 15 years. That’s not fast enough for our purposes, so we would need to look to dividend growth to fill the gap and speed up the pace of our profits.

Problem is, Verizon raises its payout every single year. But it’s barely moving in absolute terms! A sleepy 7.3% cumulative dividend increase over the last four years has rocked its share price to sleep (+6% over the entire time period):

Verizon’s Dividend “Growth” Rocks Its Shares to Sleep

For double-digit price appreciation, we must buy dividends destined to grow by 10% or more annually in the years ahead. This means we need to find businesses that are booming (with higher profits driving higher payouts). To do so, it helps to focus on stocks that are threat-proof.

Step 2: Be Sure to Threat-Proof Your Purchase

The classic “Dogs of the Dow” strategy advises buying the then highest-yielding Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks, then holding onto them for a year. The idea is that higher yields are a signal of a beaten-up share price in which the business struggles are temporary. When business picks up again, so will the undervalued stock.

The problem using this strategy blindly today is that many businesses are becoming obsolete before our very eyes. Look no further than Jeff Bezos and his firm Amazon, which crushes entire sectors for sport additional growth.

To qualify for our Hidden Yields portfolio, a business model must be Amazon-proof, rate-proof and heck, even tariff-proof.

Incidentally, this doesn’t mean we must avoid all brick and mortar stores. Best Buy (BBY), for example, decided to take Amazon head-on in 2012 when turnaround CEO Hubert Joly took the helm. And not only did the electronics giant live to tell about it, but it’s now leveraging Jeff Bezos’ website as a shopping channel of its own!

In recent years, Joly has been smartly “doubling down” on the quality of its retail stores (which Amazon doesn’t have). This has powered impressive free cash flow (FCF) growth, which has in turn driven serious stock returns:

Expert Service. Unbeatable Stock Price.

What else doesn’t Amazon have? A dividend, of course. Meanwhile Best Buy pays one, and its growth has been spectacular. Joly & Co. just raised their dividend by 32%. This “high velocity payout” is now up 165% in the last five years!

Its stock has followed its dividend higher, delivering 187% total returns (including those payouts). But are BBY shares truly a best buy today? It depends if the price is still lagging its payout.

Step 3: Greedy for Gains? Only Buy a Dividend That Lags

Dividends are magnets that pull their share prices along with them. If you’re looking for the stock market’s tail that wags the dog, pay attention to the payouts attached to a given share price.

Steps one and two help us lock in double-digit yearly gains. But if we’re looking for quick triple-digit (100%+) upside, we should only buy stocks that are lagging their payouts.

Texas Instruments (TXN) is a great example of a stock we’ve profited from in Hidden Yields (+46% returns in the 14 months we’ve owned it).

Since 2012, its share price (blue line below) as consistently lagged its payout (orange line below). Try as it might, TXN the stock (+358%) hasn’t been able to catch up with TXN the dividend (+464%):

TXN’s Magnetic Dividend Drives 358% Stock Gains

Since dividends follow their share prices higher, we can make the most money by buying when these payouts are most likely to “snap higher” towards their runaway dividend curves.

In other words, we buy the price dips when the dividend appears to be running away. Anyone who says you can’t time stocks hasn’t used this surefire strategy for buying shares ready to “catch up” to their runaway payouts.

It’s simple:

1. Plot a stock price versus its dividend,
2. Look for a “lag” between the shares and the payout, and
3. Buy any big lags you see.

Bonus: An Extra “Steroid” for Upside

The stock market can do its own thing over any set of days, weeks or month. But over many years, dividends are the tail that wags the (price) dog. As payouts go, so will their corresponding stock price.

This is where share repurchases become a compelling natural steroid for our portfolio. When management teams repurchase their own stock smartly (when it’s cheap), they reduce the number of outstanding shares. Which means any dividend raises get an added boost on a per share basis.

Ideally, we look for a pattern like this one. This firm has reduced its share count (red line) by 10.8%. It’s tripled its dividend per share over the same time period. And its stock hasn’t kept pace, indicating pent up value (it has another 85% to go to catch up!)

Share Count Down, Dividend Up & Price is Due

This stock boasts an ideal setup for us. Shares are too cheap, the business owns a profitable niche with business momentum, and the broader investing herd isn’t paying attention because they don’t understand how the company truly makes money.

If you like this setup, you’ll LOVE nine more that I’ve identified. All of these stocks pay dividends today. And they’re all likely to double your money in the months ahead.

Coming This Friday: 10 Dividend Payers with 100% Upside

How much money should you allocate to pursuing dividend stocks that will double your money?

As you can see – as much as possible. This strategy is such a “slam dunk” for investing returns that there’s no reason to collect more current yields than you need right now. There are three big benefits to buying dividend payers that are likely to double your money.

Benefit 1. You invest a set amount of money into one of these “hidden yield” stocks and immediately start getting regular returns on the order of 3%, 4%, or maybe more.

That alone is better than you can get from just about any other conservative investment right now.

Benefit 2. Over time, your dividend payments go up so you’re eventually earning 8%, 9%, or 10% a year on your original investment.

That should not only keep pace with inflation or rising interest rates, it should stay ahead of them.

Benefit 3. As your income is rising, other investors are also bidding up the price of your shares to keep pace with the increasing yields.

This combination of rising dividends and capital appreciation is what gives you the potential to earn 20% or more on average with almost no effort or active investing at all.

Editor's Note: The stock market is way up – and that’s terrible news for us dividend investors. Yields haven’t been this low in decades! But there are still plenty of great opportunities to secure meaningful income if you know where to look. Brett Owens' latest report reveals how you can easily (and safely) rake in 8%+ dividends and never worry about drawing down your capital again. Click here for full details!

Source: Contrarian Outlook