October 17th was a good day for investors. The Dow, reeling from a six-day slide, rebounded with a powerful 250-point gain. But for one small group of stockholders it was an especially great day. Shares of Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) rocketed more than $16 per share, hitting $208.59 in heavy trading. #-ad_banner-#This pop was triggered by the declaration of a dividend… but not just any dividend.    The board approved a one-time special dividend payment of $7.57 per share in connection with the firm’s restructuring into a… Read More

October 17th was a good day for investors. The Dow, reeling from a six-day slide, rebounded with a powerful 250-point gain. But for one small group of stockholders it was an especially great day. Shares of Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) rocketed more than $16 per share, hitting $208.59 in heavy trading. #-ad_banner-#This pop was triggered by the declaration of a dividend… but not just any dividend.    The board approved a one-time special dividend payment of $7.57 per share in connection with the firm’s restructuring into a real estate investment trust (REIT). This isn’t the only cash windfall that EQIX shareholders will be receiving. The company, which owns large data centers, is planning another special dividend in 2015 that will be even larger. It’s no wonder why the shares continue to attract attention, up almost 10% since the original announcement. This is the type of situation that investors love to be involved with. In fact, subscribers of my premium advisory service High-Yield Investing were able to cash in from the same exact scenario recently with a stock I… Read More

We all like to see rising dividend yields. And that only happens for one of two reasons: either the quarterly payout increases or the share price decreases. The first cause is typically met with shareholder applause. The second… not so much. #-ad_banner-#Yet, temporary dips in share price can be far more effective in sending yields quickly skyward — turning a normal 2% payer into a 3% payer, juicing a 3% yield to 4%, and bumping a 5% payout to 6%, 7% or even more. And they can do so in a matter of days or weeks — expediting a process… Read More

We all like to see rising dividend yields. And that only happens for one of two reasons: either the quarterly payout increases or the share price decreases. The first cause is typically met with shareholder applause. The second… not so much. #-ad_banner-#Yet, temporary dips in share price can be far more effective in sending yields quickly skyward — turning a normal 2% payer into a 3% payer, juicing a 3% yield to 4%, and bumping a 5% payout to 6%, 7% or even more. And they can do so in a matter of days or weeks — expediting a process that can take years through the “preferred” route of dividend hikes. Take SeaDrill Ltd (Nasdaq: SDRL), a former member of my High-Yield Investing portfolio that I sold back in January for a 47% profit. Since then, the stock has plunged from $40 to $22.51 at the time this article was written. Back then, the annualized dividend of $3.92 per share was throwing off a yield of 9.8%. Nothing wrong with that. But today, thanks to market panic (and a minor two-cent hike in the quarterly payment), the yield has been driven into the stratosphere at 17.5%. How long would it… Read More

They’ve officially become more popular than dividends. Top companies are shelling out these extra payments in droves. The goal is to give shareholders more bang for their investment buck than dividends alone. They are a favorite of Warren Buffett and many other billionaire investors. There’s a good chance you’ve received one of these “tax-free dividends” before and didn’t even realize it. That’s because they’re buried in a company’s financial statement. But since 1982, when the SEC enacted a rule called 10b-18 as a measure of boosting the economy, these “tax-free dividends”… Read More

They’ve officially become more popular than dividends. Top companies are shelling out these extra payments in droves. The goal is to give shareholders more bang for their investment buck than dividends alone. They are a favorite of Warren Buffett and many other billionaire investors. There’s a good chance you’ve received one of these “tax-free dividends” before and didn’t even realize it. That’s because they’re buried in a company’s financial statement. But since 1982, when the SEC enacted a rule called 10b-18 as a measure of boosting the economy, these “tax-free dividends” have become a favored form of payment among shareholders. And companies have responded. Just look at the chart below to see how companies have been paying shareholders since 1982, especially since 2005 (hint: it hasn’t been just with traditional dividends)… Now, not every company pays these “tax-free dividends.” So just which companies are making these extra payments… and how can you start receiving them today? The easiest way to identify which companies are making “tax-free dividend” payments is to explain the payment method itself. As I mentioned, its roots trace back… Read More

Around the office, we call them “secret wealth investments.” That’s because they’ve been almost exclusively used by the wealthiest investors and institutions for decades now. #-ad_banner-#Yale has used them to generate average returns of 30% every year for their endowment funds since 1973. High net-worth individuals have used them to beat S&P 500 investor returns by an average of 7 percentage points every year for the past decade. And because federal law has stipulated that only millionaires with annual incomes above $200,000 per year can invest in them,… Read More

Around the office, we call them “secret wealth investments.” That’s because they’ve been almost exclusively used by the wealthiest investors and institutions for decades now. #-ad_banner-#Yale has used them to generate average returns of 30% every year for their endowment funds since 1973. High net-worth individuals have used them to beat S&P 500 investor returns by an average of 7 percentage points every year for the past decade. And because federal law has stipulated that only millionaires with annual incomes above $200,000 per year can invest in them, about 94% of investors have been blocked out of this private-market investment. That is, until we found a backdoor way for all investors to invest in them… If you’ve been reading StreetAuthority for the past couple of weeks, you know some my colleagues and I are big fans of these ultra high-yield investments. Some of these “secret wealth investments” I’m referring to are known as private equity firms. And over the last decade, they’ve slowly become open to individual investors. Today, roughly a dozen of these firms sell shares on the… Read More

October 4, 2011 wasn’t a particularly momentous day. In Waxahachie, Texas, a chemical plant was still smoldering from a fire the day before. In New York, “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators had completed a march dressed as corporate zombies. #-ad_banner-#But the day did mark a major inflection point for the markets, when the S&P 500 closed at 1,123. And stocks have been rising ever since. Yesterday, the benchmark index touched of 2,011. That’s a powerful increase of 79.1%. There have been more impressive runs. But the truly remarkable aspect of this advance is that it has been virtually uninterrupted. October will… Read More

October 4, 2011 wasn’t a particularly momentous day. In Waxahachie, Texas, a chemical plant was still smoldering from a fire the day before. In New York, “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators had completed a march dressed as corporate zombies. #-ad_banner-#But the day did mark a major inflection point for the markets, when the S&P 500 closed at 1,123. And stocks have been rising ever since. Yesterday, the benchmark index touched of 2,011. That’s a powerful increase of 79.1%. There have been more impressive runs. But the truly remarkable aspect of this advance is that it has been virtually uninterrupted. October will be the three-year anniversary of the last market trough. And during this stretch, we haven’t had a single correction (defined as a pullback of at least 10%) — not one in the past 36 months. But that could be changing… All bull markets are punctuated by the occasional pullback. It’s not a matter of if, but when. According to Forbes, there have been 16 bull markets since the Great Depression. In that 80-year span, only 3 of those lasted longer than five years — all were so-called “super-bulls.” Our current bull market last experienced a correction in October 2011, but… Read More

Last week, I told you about a supply shortage in one of the world’s most important metals… For the past several years, demand for this metal has been so high and supplies so thin, the market has had no choice but to tap a strategic Russian stock pile to cover the deficit. #-ad_banner-#But Russia’s reserves are almost gone… and if Russia hangs a “sold-out” sign on the door, then get ready for the price of this metal — palladium (a member of the platinum metals group or… Read More

Last week, I told you about a supply shortage in one of the world’s most important metals… For the past several years, demand for this metal has been so high and supplies so thin, the market has had no choice but to tap a strategic Russian stock pile to cover the deficit. #-ad_banner-#But Russia’s reserves are almost gone… and if Russia hangs a “sold-out” sign on the door, then get ready for the price of this metal — palladium (a member of the platinum metals group or (PGMs)) — to skyrocket.  Resource shortages like this are exactly the opportunities I look for in my premium newsletter, Scarcity and Real Wealth. With the demand for palladium soaring, and the global supply getting smaller every day, I think palladium is presenting investors with a good buying opportunity. But investing in palladium can be tricky… it’s not as well known as other metals like gold and silver, and it’s not nearly as frequently traded.  So how do you invest in it then? The easiest way is to invest in the metal is through an exchange-traded fund (ETF) like ETFS… Read More

Over the past few months, I have written extensively about the “new normal” in income investing. You see, as one of StreetAuthority’s leading income investing experts, it’s my obligation to let you know when the rules have changed. #-ad_banner-#​Nonetheless, I consistently get emails from readers, asking me where all of the high yielders have gone. “You are getting away from income investor basics. I am not interested in “total [yield]” or stocks with less than 7%-8% dividends.” — George W., North Carolina I want to devote… Read More

Over the past few months, I have written extensively about the “new normal” in income investing. You see, as one of StreetAuthority’s leading income investing experts, it’s my obligation to let you know when the rules have changed. #-ad_banner-#​Nonetheless, I consistently get emails from readers, asking me where all of the high yielders have gone. “You are getting away from income investor basics. I am not interested in “total [yield]” or stocks with less than 7%-8% dividends.” — George W., North Carolina I want to devote today’s issue to address George’s email, because understanding the reality about income investing in today’s market can mean the difference between market-beating returns and financial ruin. I understand that many of you, like George, want to see me recommend 10%-plus yielders each month — to which I can only respond, so do I. Unfortunately, high-quality stocks with yields even half this high are extremely rare. That’s because, right now, aside from historically low interest rates, American companies are undergoing a transformative shift away from dividends in favor of share repurchases. Don’t get… Read More

For many investors, it’s easy to ignore companies that don’t pay dividends. But sometimes it pays to dig a little deeper into a stock — especially when you realize some of those companies are actually spending their billions on share buybacks instead to reward shareholders. #-ad_banner-#​Why? Because these companies know that buybacks and dividends share one common trait — they’re both a transfer of wealth from the company to the shareholder. But unlike dividends, buybacks aren’t taxable to companies or their shareholders. That’s why I like… Read More

For many investors, it’s easy to ignore companies that don’t pay dividends. But sometimes it pays to dig a little deeper into a stock — especially when you realize some of those companies are actually spending their billions on share buybacks instead to reward shareholders. #-ad_banner-#​Why? Because these companies know that buybacks and dividends share one common trait — they’re both a transfer of wealth from the company to the shareholder. But unlike dividends, buybacks aren’t taxable to companies or their shareholders. That’s why I like to think of them as a sort of “tax-free dividend.” That’s just one of the reasons they’ve become more popular than dividends among shareholders and corporations alike… As I’ve pointed out several times in StreetAuthority Daily, companies have been increasingly choosing stock repurchases in lieu of dividends to create value for their shareholders for the past two decades. I explained more about how share repurchases transfer value in a previous article. Just look at how S&P 500 companies have been spending their excess cash, especially since 1998…… Read More

Once upon a time, high dividend yields were plentiful… so much so that they may have been taken for granted. And now, the tired adage, “You never know how good something is, until it’s gone” has never been more true. For the past few years, the market has been trending away from high-yield dividend payments. As I wrote recently in Dividend Opportunities, just seven stocks in the S&P 500 carry a dividend yield over 6%. On top of that, the average yield for S&P 500 companies is a measly 1.96%. But I’d like to… Read More

Once upon a time, high dividend yields were plentiful… so much so that they may have been taken for granted. And now, the tired adage, “You never know how good something is, until it’s gone” has never been more true. For the past few years, the market has been trending away from high-yield dividend payments. As I wrote recently in Dividend Opportunities, just seven stocks in the S&P 500 carry a dividend yield over 6%. On top of that, the average yield for S&P 500 companies is a measly 1.96%. But I’d like to remind you that just because high-yields are increasingly scarce in today’s market doesn’t mean you have to settle. #-ad_banner-#​What I am getting at is that while high-yields are nice, they aren’t the end-all, be-all of dividend investing. To frame our conversation, let me pose this question: Would you rather have a stagnant 7% yield or a 5% yield that grows by 10% every year? While on its face a high dividend yield is very attractive, growing dividends can turn even lower-yielding stocks into big income producers over time. To see what I mean, look… Read More

In 2013, Warren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), collected over $4 billion in “tax-free dividends.” These weren’t distributions from tax-exempt securities like municipal bonds. The dividends I’m talking about came from big, blue-chip companies like International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) and United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). Now to be fair, these distributions weren’t dividends in the traditional sense. Buffett didn’t see any extra money in his bank account because of them. #-ad_banner-#​But don’t be fooled. Even though he didn’t get any cash, it doesn’t mean those… Read More

In 2013, Warren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), collected over $4 billion in “tax-free dividends.” These weren’t distributions from tax-exempt securities like municipal bonds. The dividends I’m talking about came from big, blue-chip companies like International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) and United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). Now to be fair, these distributions weren’t dividends in the traditional sense. Buffett didn’t see any extra money in his bank account because of them. #-ad_banner-#​But don’t be fooled. Even though he didn’t get any cash, it doesn’t mean those payments weren’t beneficial. In fact, each time Buffett’s holdings paid one of these tax-free dividends, the value of that stock went up — regardless of whether its share price increased or not… That’s because these tax-free dividends I’m talking about are actually better known as share buybacks. We call it a “tax-free dividend” because each time a company buys back shares, your stake in that company becomes more valuable due to the declining number of shares outstanding. The value you get from that transaction, is tax-free. Read More