With interest rates still at historic lows and the stock market soaring, income investors are hard pressed to find good places to put new capital to work. As a result, high-yield stocks such as Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) often attract investors with the promise of mouthwatering yields. But while there are excellent high-yield [...]
A little over a month ago I joined Simply Safe Dividends as CTO (the “tech guy”). After speaking with dozens of customers by phone, trading hundreds of emails with customers, and going through a crash course in analyzing dividend stocks, I’ve set out to make a bevy of improvements to the website. First up was the [...]
One of the biggest challenges faced by retirees, or people who have just entered retirement, is finding the best method for ensuring that the money they've worked so hard to save doesn’t run out, or isn't lost to market declines. The closer you are to retiring, the less time you have to work and [...]
Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) such as ONEOK Partners (OKS) have long been a favorite among high-yield income investors. MLPs have appeal thanks to their generally steady cash flows (courtesy of long-term, fixed fee contracts) and business model that involves paying out the majority of distributable cash flow (MLP equivalent of free cash flow) to [...]
What Happened? Target (TGT) reported disappointing fourth quarter earnings results this morning, sending the stock down more than 12%. Target's dividend yield now exceeds 4%, well above its five-year average yield of 2.6% and making it one of the highest-yielding dividend aristocrats. Comparable sales declined 1.5% during the quarter, which was at the low [...]
Kimberly-Clark has provided investors with reliable income increases for decades. In fact, the company is one of the 51 dividend aristocrats, which can all be seen here. Kimberly-Clark pays one of the safest dividends in the market, yields close to 3%, offers mid-single digit payout growth, and sells recession-resistant products. All of [...]
Hey there, I'm Matt, Brian's new CTO at Simply Safe Dividends, and here's the story of how I arrived here... I remember the first time I traded a stock. It was Google in 2008. My thinking was simple: buy low and sell high! I had no clue what I was doing. Over the course [...]
Hormel (HRL) released new quarterly earnings results and updated its 2017 guidance this morning. The company's earnings grew for the 15th consecutive quarter to reach a new record, and adjusted sales and volume increased by 3% and 5%, respectively. Not bad! However, management lowered the company's 2017 earnings per share guidance to $1.65 to $1.71. [...]
There are numerous reasons to embrace dividend growth investing as the best means to achieving long-term financial independence. Most discussion focuses on traditional income stocks, those that pay out steadily growing quarterly dividends. However, occasionally a company will issue a special dividend, which is generally much larger than a regular dividend and therefore [...]
With tax season upon us and the world of dividend investing having now matured and expanded into an ever more complex universe of business types, many income investors are understandably confused about taxes on dividends. Especially since the U.S. tax code has grown into one of the largest and most convoluted parts of our [...]
GNC (GNC) surprised many income investors when management recently announced that the company’s dividend will be suspended. After all, GNC has been in business for more than 80 years, maintains a payout ratio below 40%, generates solid free cash flow, and even increased its dividend every year since it began paying one in 2012 [...]
Annuities are one of the most popular retirement investment vehicles, but they are also one of the most debated. People either love them or hate them (there’s usually no in-between when it comes to annuities). One particular aspect of deferred annuity contracts, and the one that’s at the root of almost every debate [...]
YieldCos are a relatively new class of dividend stocks luring in many investors. While many YieldCos offer strong income growth potential, not unlike the famous Dividend Aristocrats, they also come with high yields that average more than 5%. This combination of high yield and high income growth results from YieldCos' exposure to renewable [...]
You won’t read about Vectren in the headlines. But for more than 50 years in a row, Vectren has quietly paid and raised its dividend. It’s a feat that’s been done by just 21 other companies publicly traded in the U.S. Vectren is a utility company, and utility companies are often attractive to [...]
Scorpio Tankers (STNG) shocked many income investors when the company announced a 92% cut to its dividend this morning. After all, the company’s management team sounded confident about maintaining Scorpio Tankers’ dividend just a few months ago in November: “If you run through our model, the company is fully able to pay its [...]