Warning: Major Correction Could Begin July 8th ​One of our colleagues just showed us an urgent video warning of a major market correction. It features a millionaire trading prodigy who predicted and profited from the dot-com bubble and the 2008 crash, and he says hundreds of the most popular stocks could be in danger of plunging 10%-30%… overnight. To watch this free short video, click here. Sincerely, Brad Briggs Executive Editor, StreetAuthority Last… Read More

Warning: Major Correction Could Begin July 8th ​One of our colleagues just showed us an urgent video warning of a major market correction. It features a millionaire trading prodigy who predicted and profited from the dot-com bubble and the 2008 crash, and he says hundreds of the most popular stocks could be in danger of plunging 10%-30%… overnight. To watch this free short video, click here. Sincerely, Brad Briggs Executive Editor, StreetAuthority Last month I wrote about an industry that has not only outperformed all others since 1900, but also offered some of the best yields in the United States. And while I don’t advocate smoking, history shows that investing in tobacco companies is hugely profitable for investors looking for both capital gains and outsized dividends. #-ad_banner-#Today I’d like to share with you an even better way to play the industry… with an investment many tend to overlook. To reiterate how powerful tobacco stocks are, consider this: One dollar invested in… Read More

The world can be a scary place to invest these days. Greece can’t pay its debts, Russia is a mess, China’s stock market is quickly falling back to earth after a meteoric run-up and Brazil is still dealing with the fallout of a massive corruption scandal involving dozens of politicians and its state-controlled oil company Petrobas S.A. (NYSE: PBR). The global challenges are leading many investors to seek out the relative safety and  stability that large North American companies offer, especially those that have a primarily domestic focus.  Here are three companies that operate almost entirely in the United States… Read More

The world can be a scary place to invest these days. Greece can’t pay its debts, Russia is a mess, China’s stock market is quickly falling back to earth after a meteoric run-up and Brazil is still dealing with the fallout of a massive corruption scandal involving dozens of politicians and its state-controlled oil company Petrobas S.A. (NYSE: PBR). The global challenges are leading many investors to seek out the relative safety and  stability that large North American companies offer, especially those that have a primarily domestic focus.  Here are three companies that operate almost entirely in the United States that provide stability, yield and growth. The Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) is almost certainly familiar to nearly every U.S. consumer as a leading purveyor of chocolate and other snacks. The company has been in business since 1894 and does 82% of its business in the United States. Hershey is at the top of the U.S. confectionary market with 31% market share. Despite operating in a slow-growth market, Hershey is able to leverage its tremendous brand loyalty and pricing power into a compounded annual earnings growth rate of more than 7% per year over the past 10 years. In that time,… Read More

#-ad_banner-# ​Competition is a given in any business, but it’s white hot for convenience stores. This crowded field includes scads of mom and pop operations, as well as the massive nationwide chains of 7-Eleven, Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and others. With so little to set them apart, industry participants can usually command little in the way of pricing power or customer loyalty. Profit margins are typically scant. So it’s the rare gem that’s able to develop lasting competitive advantages and consistently deliver superior financial metrics. And I’ve found… Read More

#-ad_banner-# ​Competition is a given in any business, but it’s white hot for convenience stores. This crowded field includes scads of mom and pop operations, as well as the massive nationwide chains of 7-Eleven, Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and others. With so little to set them apart, industry participants can usually command little in the way of pricing power or customer loyalty. Profit margins are typically scant. So it’s the rare gem that’s able to develop lasting competitive advantages and consistently deliver superior financial metrics. And I’ve found such a gem: Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASY) is a thriving Midwestern chain operating both self-service gas stations and convenience stores. This business model is common, but Casey’s turned it into something special. The company’s sales have historically grown at an 11% pace and are nearing $8 billion, up from $2.8 billion in fiscal (April) 2005. Profits climbed by more than sixfold during that time to $181 million annually. Not surprisingly, Casey’s stock is demolishing the S&P 500. How did Casey’s become such a standout? For one thing, by taking the road less traveled. Read More

What do you consider when looking to purchase a new dividend-paying security? If you’re like most income investors, you probably search out its yield or investigate whether it can maintain its dividend. #-ad_banner-#These are important criteria, but there’s another trait that many investors overlook that is just as important: dividend frequency. On one hand, I understand why it’s often overlooked. After all, if a security pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share, what difference does it make if it pays $1.20 per share once a year or $0.10 per share… Read More

What do you consider when looking to purchase a new dividend-paying security? If you’re like most income investors, you probably search out its yield or investigate whether it can maintain its dividend. #-ad_banner-#These are important criteria, but there’s another trait that many investors overlook that is just as important: dividend frequency. On one hand, I understand why it’s often overlooked. After all, if a security pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share, what difference does it make if it pays $1.20 per share once a year or $0.10 per share 12 times a year? All else being equal, however, a more frequent dividend payer is better than a less frequent dividend payer… especially if you are reinvesting your dividends. Earn More Income The fact is if you reinvest your dividends as I do, you will ultimately make more money with a monthly dividend payer than an annual dividend payer. To see what I mean, take a look at the chart below. It contrasts the growth of $100,000 invested in securities yielding 7%. One security makes monthly distributions while the other… Read More

With the bull market looking increasingly vulnerable to a steep selloff, many investors are wisely seeking out safe, reliable market leaders that pay generous dividends. A top name to consider: the iconic healthcare firm Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). This long-time component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average dominates on several fronts including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer healthcare/personal care products. And it throws off uncommonly large amounts of cash. Indeed, free cash flow totaled more than $125 billion from 2005 through 2014, according to Morningstar data. That’s substantially more than many other Dow icons including McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD),… Read More

With the bull market looking increasingly vulnerable to a steep selloff, many investors are wisely seeking out safe, reliable market leaders that pay generous dividends. A top name to consider: the iconic healthcare firm Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). This long-time component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average dominates on several fronts including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and consumer healthcare/personal care products. And it throws off uncommonly large amounts of cash. Indeed, free cash flow totaled more than $125 billion from 2005 through 2014, according to Morningstar data. That’s substantially more than many other Dow icons including McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG). During the same period, these four firms reported cumulative free cash of $37 billion, $44 billion, $99 billion and $103 billion, respectively. Along with tens of billions in cash on the balance sheet, superior free cash flow enabled JNJ to dole out nearly $57 billion in dividends from 2005 to 2014. As the following chart from the firm’s investor relations webpage shows, the per-share payout more than doubled to $2.76 during that time. It has since climbed to an annualized $3 a share, which… Read More

While Wall Street analysts focus on how a company will fare in the next quarter, I’m always thinking about what a business will look like in five, 10 or even 20 years down the road. Some companies simply hope that business will be good in future years, while others can speak with a high degree of confidence about their long-term goals. That’s because these firms share one key trait: they have a “sticky” customer base. #-ad_banner-#Let’s take Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADP) as an example. The company provides outsourced payroll… Read More

While Wall Street analysts focus on how a company will fare in the next quarter, I’m always thinking about what a business will look like in five, 10 or even 20 years down the road. Some companies simply hope that business will be good in future years, while others can speak with a high degree of confidence about their long-term goals. That’s because these firms share one key trait: they have a “sticky” customer base. #-ad_banner-#Let’s take Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADP) as an example. The company provides outsourced payroll management and other services typically handled by human resources departments. Although ADP provides clear value to its clients, the company boasts of a 91% annual retention rate for another reason: switching costs. You see, once a client has agreed to turn over its business processes to ADP, it becomes awfully hard to take that business back. That means a new customer that ADP signs up today is likely to stick around through the next bear market and the next bull market. We can see proof of this by looking at how ADP fared during… Read More

Interest rates have jumped on stronger economic growth in the United States and abroad causing prices for rate-sensitive investments to plunge. Traditionally low-risk investments like the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSE: TLT) and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE: XLU) have booked large losses that will likely extend when the Fed finally starts to lift rates. But utilities still play a vital role for many investors that need consistent income and can be a blessing when the general market tumbles. #-ad_banner-# Using one of my favorite options strategies for reducing… Read More

Interest rates have jumped on stronger economic growth in the United States and abroad causing prices for rate-sensitive investments to plunge. Traditionally low-risk investments like the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSE: TLT) and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE: XLU) have booked large losses that will likely extend when the Fed finally starts to lift rates. But utilities still play a vital role for many investors that need consistent income and can be a blessing when the general market tumbles. #-ad_banner-# Using one of my favorite options strategies for reducing risk can provide extra income for those investors while maintaining a position in the sector for longer-term portfolio diversification. Taper Tantrum, Round 4 — Rates Surge Volatility due to rapidly rising interest rates is nothing new for investors in utility stocks. Rates on the 10-year Treasury jumped 1.3% in 2013 when the Federal Reserve announced that it would begin tapering its $70 billion monthly bond purchases. Shares of the SPDR utility fund dropped 10.2% in the four months leading up to September of that year. Markets have seen two other periods of rate hike fears since then. The first was… Read More

The great bond exodus may have begun. Fears of Federal Reserve-induced interest rate increases are pushing bond yields up and bond prices down. In fact, more than $1.2 trillion in value has been wiped out in the global bond market since April.  The selloff has accelerated when the June employment report showed that wages in May increased by the most since August 2013. Signs of an economic recovery in Europe have also pushed losses on global bonds even further. The yield on the German 10-year bund has jumped nearly ten-fold since late April. #-ad_banner-#The fallout is already being… Read More

The great bond exodus may have begun. Fears of Federal Reserve-induced interest rate increases are pushing bond yields up and bond prices down. In fact, more than $1.2 trillion in value has been wiped out in the global bond market since April.  The selloff has accelerated when the June employment report showed that wages in May increased by the most since August 2013. Signs of an economic recovery in Europe have also pushed losses on global bonds even further. The yield on the German 10-year bund has jumped nearly ten-fold since late April. #-ad_banner-#The fallout is already being felt with bond funds. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund (NYSE: TLT) and the SPDR Barclays Long-term Corporate Bond ETF (NYSE: LWC) have both lost roughly 10% in the past two months. Despite the idea that bonds are a safe investment and a hedge against stock market losses, the correlation between global bonds and stocks has recently increased to 0.30, the highest correlation since the Federal Reserve announced it would begin tapering quantitative easing in 2013. That means returns on stocks and bonds are moving in similar directions and there may be nowhere to hide for investors. Looking for… Read More

If you’re a regular reader of StreetAuthority, you know I love getting and reinvesting dividend paychecks. Simply put, my goal is to earn a paycheck every day of the month by owning a basket of solid income securities, then grow the size of those paychecks by harnessing the power of compounding through dividend reinvestment. So far, the results have been very rewarding. From an initial $200,000 investment, I’m earning $18,613 in dividends a year (more than $1,551 a month) using this strategy. And that doesn’t even include a penny from the healthy capital gains I’ve made from… Read More

If you’re a regular reader of StreetAuthority, you know I love getting and reinvesting dividend paychecks. Simply put, my goal is to earn a paycheck every day of the month by owning a basket of solid income securities, then grow the size of those paychecks by harnessing the power of compounding through dividend reinvestment. So far, the results have been very rewarding. From an initial $200,000 investment, I’m earning $18,613 in dividends a year (more than $1,551 a month) using this strategy. And that doesn’t even include a penny from the healthy capital gains I’ve made from most of my holdings. But as I said, you may have already heard this before. My goal today is to show you how to get the most out of your income investments using a simple, yet effective, three-part strategy. I like to think of it as a dividend “trifecta,” and it’s the cornerstone of my Daily Paycheck Retirement Strategy. The great thing about this trifecta is that it’s fully customizable to your own needs. You can use it to multiply your wealth over time, preserve capital, even bring in a second income to fund… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. #-ad_banner-#Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time: World War I and II, The Great Depression, the dot-com bubble, government shutdowns, the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you, none of this seemed to matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without… Read More

These seven stocks have done the impossible. Each one of them has paid a dividend like clockwork for over a century. In fact, the longest-standing dividend payer on the list hasn’t missed a payment since 1877 — when Rutherford B. Hayes was president. #-ad_banner-#Think of everything that has happened to our financial system since that time: World War I and II, The Great Depression, the dot-com bubble, government shutdowns, the list goes on. For the seven stocks I’m about to show you, none of this seemed to matter. These companies breezed through every economic downturn America has ever faced without so much as a hiccup in their dividend payments. In fact, most of them were able to increase their payouts during those periods. That’s a pretty remarkable feat. In 2009 alone, more than 800 American companies had to cut their dividends because of the fallout from the subprime crisis. Now, to be fair, there is nothing secret about these stocks. You’ve probably heard of all these companies before. But to me, that’s not a deterrent. In fact, it’s part of what makes these seven stocks so attractive. That’s because in all my years of investing, I’ve found that it’s not… Read More