It’s the longest-tenured fund holding in my High-Yield Investing premium portfolio… and for good reason.  After all, most investors probably don’t associate 7% yields with safety — much less outperformance. But with the John Hancock Premium Dividend (NYSE: PDT) fund, you get all that and more.   After a rare down year in 2018, PDT is once again at the top of the charts in 2019. It has delivered a return of 21.6% so far, doubling its category average — and scoring in the top 1% of its peer group. Launched by John Hancock in 1989, this closed-end fund targets dividend-paying… Read More

It’s the longest-tenured fund holding in my High-Yield Investing premium portfolio… and for good reason.  After all, most investors probably don’t associate 7% yields with safety — much less outperformance. But with the John Hancock Premium Dividend (NYSE: PDT) fund, you get all that and more.   After a rare down year in 2018, PDT is once again at the top of the charts in 2019. It has delivered a return of 21.6% so far, doubling its category average — and scoring in the top 1% of its peer group. Launched by John Hancock in 1989, this closed-end fund targets dividend-paying preferred and common stock. There are more than 100 securities in the portfolio issued by cash generators such as Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI). But the biggest weighting goes to utilities and financial firms, which occupy nearly 80% of assets. If a utility sector fund and preferred stock fund had an offspring, it would look a lot like PDT. #-ad_banner-#Since preferred stocks are primarily issued by banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies, it’s no surprise that the portfolio is dominated by names such as Morgan Stanley, Capital One and Prudential. The heavy concentration in regulated power… Read More

As my High-Yield Investing subscribers know, I like to keep an eye out for companies that are likely to announce a dividend hike in the coming month. #-ad_banner-# Staying on top of these potential pay raises for shareholders is important. After all, while finding a good income security is always a good thing, it’s even better if we can get in early.  As you’ll see in a moment, two of today’s dividend-growth candidates come from the tech sector. That’s a nice coincidence if you happened to catch my previous article — in which I pointed out that the tech sector is… Read More

As my High-Yield Investing subscribers know, I like to keep an eye out for companies that are likely to announce a dividend hike in the coming month. #-ad_banner-# Staying on top of these potential pay raises for shareholders is important. After all, while finding a good income security is always a good thing, it’s even better if we can get in early.  As you’ll see in a moment, two of today’s dividend-growth candidates come from the tech sector. That’s a nice coincidence if you happened to catch my previous article — in which I pointed out that the tech sector is often an overlooked area for income investors. In fact, the two companies I specifically mentioned in that piece show up as potential dividend-hikers today. I’ve also highlighted a household staples provider and a utility, both of which are Dividend Aristocrats with decades of uninterrupted dividend growth.  All four businesses are at the top of their respective fields. And all are poised to hike their distributions within a matter of weeks. So without further delay, here are four stocks that could raise their payouts as soon as next month.  1. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) — As mentioned above, Apple has been changing… Read More

Have you ever looked at the portfolio composition of popular equity-income funds such as Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (NYSE: VIG)? The low-cost exchange-traded fund (ETF) was built to give investors access to a broad basket of 200 dividend-paying stocks.  It has done a respectable job, delivering total returns of 10.2% annually over the past five years, better than most category peers. But the fund isn’t nearly as diverse as you might expect. More than 70% of assets are sunk into just three sectors: industrials, consumer services and consumer goods.  I can relate. A good chunk of my High-Yield Investing portfolio is… Read More

Have you ever looked at the portfolio composition of popular equity-income funds such as Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (NYSE: VIG)? The low-cost exchange-traded fund (ETF) was built to give investors access to a broad basket of 200 dividend-paying stocks.  It has done a respectable job, delivering total returns of 10.2% annually over the past five years, better than most category peers. But the fund isn’t nearly as diverse as you might expect. More than 70% of assets are sunk into just three sectors: industrials, consumer services and consumer goods.  I can relate. A good chunk of my High-Yield Investing portfolio is devoted to midstream energy MLPs, real estate trusts, and infrastructure firms.  That’s no accident. These companies own durable assets that generate steady, predictable cash flows. They also offer some of the most generous yields around, with lofty payouts of 6% to 8% or more. So naturally, I do a lot of fishing in these waters. And I won’t complain about long-term returns of 108%, 207%, 421%, and more.  Still, too much concentration can be dangerous. And there’s a lot of ground to cover out there.  —Recommended Link— Congratulations on 10 years of profits We’ve unleashed it again–our annual Game-Changing… Read More

Despite choppy oil prices, master limited partnership (MLP) Magellan Midstream (NYSE: MMP) has managed to produce record distributable cash flows (DCFs) over the past year.  But that’s not altogether surprising, considering 90% of the firm’s income is fee-based, leaving just 10% sensitive to commodity prices. It’s also why we’ve held it in our portfolio over at The Daily Paycheck since 2010. Magellan At A Glance For those who are unfamiliar, Magellan owns 9,700 miles of refined products pipelines that connect with roughly half of the nation’s refineries. It also operates 53 terminals that have 45 million barrels of… Read More

Despite choppy oil prices, master limited partnership (MLP) Magellan Midstream (NYSE: MMP) has managed to produce record distributable cash flows (DCFs) over the past year.  But that’s not altogether surprising, considering 90% of the firm’s income is fee-based, leaving just 10% sensitive to commodity prices. It’s also why we’ve held it in our portfolio over at The Daily Paycheck since 2010. Magellan At A Glance For those who are unfamiliar, Magellan owns 9,700 miles of refined products pipelines that connect with roughly half of the nation’s refineries. It also operates 53 terminals that have 45 million barrels of gas and diesel fuel storage capacity. That’s in addition to 2,200 miles of crude oil pipelines that feed storage systems from the Gulf Coast to the nation’s main hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. Magellan doesn’t take possession of any oil or other liquids — it just gets paid for storage and transportation services. That compensation comes in the form of tariffs and fees (often under long-term contracts) based on the volume of oil and refined products flowing through its networks. #-ad_banner-#What’s New With MMP Thanks in part to a 4.4% tariff increase at mid-year, the company delivered record DCF of… Read More

Last week, I wrote an extensive piece detailing why big oil is having one of its best periods on record: Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) hauled in $6.4 billion in adjusted net income in the fourth quarter. BP (NYSE: BP) shattered expectations with a profit of $3.5 billion. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) banked earnings of $5.7 billion. That’s $15.6 billion from just three companies — in a single quarter. For the year, the combined earnings of the five super-majors — this trio plus Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and Total (NYSE: TOT) — reached an incredible $80 billion. I also discussed why… Read More

Last week, I wrote an extensive piece detailing why big oil is having one of its best periods on record: Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) hauled in $6.4 billion in adjusted net income in the fourth quarter. BP (NYSE: BP) shattered expectations with a profit of $3.5 billion. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) banked earnings of $5.7 billion. That’s $15.6 billion from just three companies — in a single quarter. For the year, the combined earnings of the five super-majors — this trio plus Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and Total (NYSE: TOT) — reached an incredible $80 billion. I also discussed why plans for a record $425 billion in spending on exploration this year should have investors excited. In that piece, I mentioned that I’m saving my top pick on this trend for my High-Yield Investing subscribers only, but that there were a number of ways for investors to profit.  Today, I want to spend a little time on just one of the big oil producers — specifically, BP (NYSE: BP).  #-ad_banner-#BP was no exception to the record fourth-quarter results posted by the major energy giants. The market was expecting an adjusted profit of $2.6 billion. The company delivered $3.5 billion, an… Read More