I don’t often follow pure income vehicles, but this is as good an opportunity as I’ve come across. In fact, it’s “safe” enough for an 89-year-old mom. And it’s IRA-friendly — you can hold it in a retirement account. I think it will prove a great way to put some capital to work in our current ultra-low interest rate environment. VOC Energy Trust (NYSE: VOC) went public in May 2011 at $21 per share. Read More

I don’t often follow pure income vehicles, but this is as good an opportunity as I’ve come across. In fact, it’s “safe” enough for an 89-year-old mom. And it’s IRA-friendly — you can hold it in a retirement account. I think it will prove a great way to put some capital to work in our current ultra-low interest rate environment. VOC Energy Trust (NYSE: VOC) went public in May 2011 at $21 per share. It has an interest in 881 producing wells in Texas and Kansas. VOC pays the costs of operating and drilling wells. VOC Partners, the sponsoring company, gets 20% of the net income from the wells. The remaining 80% goes to the trust, which pays it out to shareholders. (Come tax time, shareholders receive a 1099 — not a K-1, thankfully. This makes VOC a good holding for a retirement account.) For a while, things went swimmingly and VOC paid handsome distributions. Then in October 2012, VOC announced it had drilled a bad well. The… Read More

After a volatile few months, interest rates appear to be settling back into a tight trading range, For example, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury has hovered between 2.5% and 2.7% for more than a month now, after a stunning surge in May… Read More

Every year, I read dozens of books on investing, finance, economics and related topics. At last count, my Kindle contained well over 100 books about these subjects, and that doesn’t count the scores of paperbacks and hardbacks overflowing from my bookshelf and piled up in the corner of my office, threatening to collapse upon some hapless visitor. #-ad_banner-#I’ve even co-authored two investing books myself, one on energy and the other on emerging markets, but… Read More

Every year, I read dozens of books on investing, finance, economics and related topics. At last count, my Kindle contained well over 100 books about these subjects, and that doesn’t count the scores of paperbacks and hardbacks overflowing from my bookshelf and piled up in the corner of my office, threatening to collapse upon some hapless visitor. #-ad_banner-#I’ve even co-authored two investing books myself, one on energy and the other on emerging markets, but I digress. The sad truth is that among all these books, less than a dozen were truly memorable. Some were entertaining to read on a long-haul flight, but memory of those titles often faded before I jumped into a taxi at my destination. But there are a handful of books that make wading through all those forgettable titles worthwhile. These must-read titles contain truly useful information and analysis that prompt me to think about investing in a new way or develop new strategies and themes. “Shareholder Yield: A Better Approach to Dividend Investing” by… Read More

If you’ve paid close attention to the markets here lately, it may seem like many companies — as well as investors — have caught “dividend fever.” And for good reason. With interest rates near record lows and companies sitting on record amounts of cash, it’s been prime season for dividends. Times are good, and companies are feeling generous. Companies have been hiking their payouts at a steady pace in recent years and show no… Read More

If you’ve paid close attention to the markets here lately, it may seem like many companies — as well as investors — have caught “dividend fever.” And for good reason. With interest rates near record lows and companies sitting on record amounts of cash, it’s been prime season for dividends. Times are good, and companies are feeling generous. Companies have been hiking their payouts at a steady pace in recent years and show no sign of letting up. In fact, FactSet Research analyzed the broad spectrum of publicly traded U.S. stocks and found that companies paid out nearly $1.1 trillion in dividends in 2012. That’s roughly 20% higher than a year earlier. The prospects for 2013 are looking even better. According to a recent report by Standard & Poor’s, companies are on track for a record year for dividend payments. Companies boosted dividend payments by 12% in the first quarter alone… Read More

What does Paris Hilton have in common with Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Carl Icahn, T. Boone Pickens and Henry Kravis, along with a host of other ultra-wealthy people?  I am not talking about anything as obvious as having lots of… Read More

Boring, for lack of a better word, is good. Boring is right. Boring works. You could do worse for investment advice than to paraphrase Gordon Gekko in this way.  Burritos trading at $400-plus a share and a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 37? No thanks. DVDs and streaming content for $260 a share and a P/E of 187? I’ll pass.  No, give me a company that’s been doing basically the same thing for 85 years with very little… Read More

Boring, for lack of a better word, is good. Boring is right. Boring works. You could do worse for investment advice than to paraphrase Gordon Gekko in this way.  Burritos trading at $400-plus a share and a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 37? No thanks. DVDs and streaming content for $260 a share and a P/E of 187? I’ll pass.  No, give me a company that’s been doing basically the same thing for 85 years with very little debt, great management, and a dividend that has grown for 57 consecutive years — over half a century. Those are the types of stocks that make you rich and keep you rich. That’s Genuine Parts Co. (NYSE: GPC). Founded in 1928, Genuine Parts is the leading independent U.S. distributor of automotive replacement parts. Auto parts represent roughly half of the business, with industrial parts accounting for about a third, and wholesale office supplies and electronic materials making… Read More

Will interest rates continue their recent ascent?  If so, many investors will come to question the wisdom of holding dividend-paying stocks. After all, bonds and… Read More

When investors seek-out high-yield stocks, most of them end up finding high-profile large-cap names. I’m talking about companies like natural gas middleman SandRidge Mississippian Trust (NYSE: SDT), with its current payout rate of 17.3%, or a mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT) company such Capstead Mortgage (NYSE: CMO), which currently boasts a 10% yield. Even a more conventional… Read More

When investors seek-out high-yield stocks, most of them end up finding high-profile large-cap names. I’m talking about companies like natural gas middleman SandRidge Mississippian Trust (NYSE: SDT), with its current payout rate of 17.3%, or a mortgage real estate investment trust (REIT) company such Capstead Mortgage (NYSE: CMO), which currently boasts a 10% yield. Even a more conventional equity like Dow component AT&T (NYSE: T), with its 5% yield, is sought by many investors for its reliable cash payout. However, there’s a downside to owning large-cap stocks that were built largely on the premise of paying dividends: There’s little opportunity for major growth in the dividend. There’s also scant opportunity for significant appreciation in the share price. Income investors looking for overall growth that has a shot at outpacing… Read More

Subscribers send me dozens of questions and comments every month. While I can’t always address each one individually, I do read them all. One question we income investors are asking ourselves right now is “Should I own bonds?” The answer is yes, but for reasons I’m about to explain, you will need to be cautious. After all, major stock market averages are soaring, with both the S&P 500… Read More

Subscribers send me dozens of questions and comments every month. While I can’t always address each one individually, I do read them all. One question we income investors are asking ourselves right now is “Should I own bonds?” The answer is yes, but for reasons I’m about to explain, you will need to be cautious. After all, major stock market averages are soaring, with both the S&P 500 and the Dow surpassing all-time closing highs set back in October 2007. The bull run in stocks is also flying in the face of continued uncertainty about interest rates staying low if a divided Federal Reserve starts to phase out its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program — not to mention trouble in Japan and already high valuations for many dividend-paying stocks. So that leaves one question: Why do many analysts still think equities will keep… Read More

How high can stocks go? Since breaking through a record closing high on March 5, the Dow Jones industrial average has continued to post fresh highs. The broader S&P 500 index has more recently done the same. … Read More