The Era Of Boring Stocks Has Arrived!

These “boring” stocks might actually be the most interesting options out there right now! February 10, 2022 [Turn on your images.]( The Era Of Boring Stocks Has Arrived! Facing an economic downturn and a full-on Wall Street freakout, it’s easy to lose hope…but there’s always a profit opportunity if you know where to look. So, first of all…take a breath. Everything’s going to be fine. With some less-flashy stocks about to take off and a major company about to share out unprecedented profits for investors, these “boring” stocks might actually be the most interesting options out there right now! --------------------------------------------------------------- [Turn Your Images On] [These Stocks Might Be Dull Compared To Tech, But The Dividends Are Flashy!]( Ryan James The era of the boring companies is upon us. These previously-meh companies haven’t been popular with investors over the past several years thanks to the cool kids in Silicon Valley and other tech companies winning the favor of investors. (Although it’s ironic that the geeky tech people are considered cool these days.) [Turn Your Images On] But its time for the companies that some considered lame to have their moment under the spotlight once again. Thanks to the tough year that tech stocks have had on the NASDAQ and S&P 500, non-tech companies are primed to provide investment winnings to investors thanks to dividends. That’s right, companies that pay stockholders a percentage for the shares they own give investors a good reason to put money into those companies during a volatile market and rising interest rates. (Thanks, Federal Reserve!) Businesses that are in the bank, oil, and telecom industries are paying shareholders cash, and they deserve consideration from you, fellow Money Movers, during this volatile year on the NASDAQ and S&P. The [Wall Street Journal reported]( the following: “Through Feb. 4, the S&P 500 High Yield Dividend Index—made up of the S&P 500’s top 80 dividend-paying companies—was up 2.1% including dividends, compared with a negative total return of 5.5% for the broad benchmark through Friday. The average dividend-paying stock in the S&P 500 rose by 6.6 percentage points more than nonpayers in January, the biggest margin favoring payers in 17 years, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.” Another key factor in the rise in demand for dividend-paying stocks is expected inflation in the future. The adjusted future inflation interest rates on bond yields have fallen below the yields in the dividends. For example, expected future inflation-adjusted bonds are averaging a return of -0.5%, which means that companies with positive dividends are clearly a better investment than those bonds at this point. Duh! It doesn’t take a math genius to solve this mathematical problem. [Turn Your Images On] So, now that we have settled that dividend stocks are the way to go, you might be wondering to yourself, “which dividend stocks are worth buying?” Good question, Money Movers. You once again have proven your inquisitive nature. With high energy prices come annoyingly high prices at the pump, but these price increases also provide investing opportunities. Exxon Mobile and Chevron (both of which I previously wrote about. You can [read that HERE]( are both offering dividends of 4.2% and 3.8%. respectively. So, yay for energy stock dividends and boo for high gas prices! If sugary pops…I mean sodas, are your thing (I am from the Midwest and we still call it pop up there), than you may consider PepsiCo Inc. for your dividend winnings. Pepsi offers a 2.5% dividend, and you don’t even have to try the Pepsi challenge. [Turn Your Images On] The next option is really one to call home about. “Can you hear me now?” A rhetorical question, of course, but some of you might remember the popular Verizon commercial where that question is uttered. [Turn Your Images On] Verizon is offering dividends that could leave you happy for a change instead of being frustrated by terrible cell service. Not that anyone calls each other any more thanks to the rise of texting. I’m looking at you Gen Z! And now for the controversial dividend stocks. Cigarettes might be awful for your lungs, but they could bring you dividend returns if you purchase shares of cigarette-makers Phillip Morris International Inc. and Altria Group Inc., which are offering dividend yields of 7% and 4.7% respectively. [Turn Your Images On] And there you have it, fellow Money Movers. These are dividend stocks worth considering given the market turmoil right now. They may not be flashy as tech stocks, but they may be just what your portfolio needs for the moment until tech stocks completely recover. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Turn Your Images On] [Wall Street Freak-Out! Why There Is No Need To Panic About Market Volatility]( by Ryan James Breathe in…breathe out…and repeat. [Turn Your Images On] Yes, it has been a very volatile start to the year in stocks, especially on the NASDAQ and S&P. It is understandable to worry, but a little historical perspective can calm your anxiety. We humans don’t like it when things don’t go to plan. Like the Joker said in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” one of the greatest films ever made (not my opinion, just an absolute fact. Come at me bro!) “You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan…even if the plan is terrible.” And when things don’t go to plan, the Joker added, “everyone loses their minds!” [Turn Your Images On] That’s the year in the stock market in a nutshell. But take comfort, my good Money Movers, in the fact that bear markets—which I’m not saying we are in— don’t last forever. In fact, the market goes up more than it goes down. This downturn has just happened quickly. The market goes down faster than it goes up, but in the long term, it usually stays up for longer. [Historically]( the market only goes down once every three years, and it stays up for two out of every three years. That’s reassuring, isn’t it? You might be saying to yourself, “well, it’s impossible for stocks that go down 30%, 40%, of 50% to ever recover.” Wrong. [Turn Your Images On] The history of the stock market is littered with stocks that recovered from large losses and endured market volatility. You might even have heard of a few of them. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, and Starbucks, to name a few. All these companies were down in the dumps, and then…well, you already know what happened to them. They went up bigly! Starbucks was trading at a low of $4 back in the late 2000s; it took Microsoft until 2016 to surpass its former glory days in the late 90s…but eventually, they did, and that’s the point. Sometimes you must have strong hands to hold onto stocks during market downturns, but it eventually pays off in the end if you can withstand the temptation to dump your portfolio. Or another way at looking at the strong hands approach is to read how Money and Markets Chief Investment Strategist Adam O’Dell put it: “If for some reason, you’d decided on January 4 to put $1 million to work in the S&P 500, you’d be down to around $900,000 today.” That would sting, for sure! Of course, I could show you other ways to look at it: - If you’d put $1 million in the S&P a year ago … you’d still have a $119,000 profit. - If you’d put $1 million in at the March 2020 bottom … your account would be worth nearly $2 million today. - If you’d invested $1 million 10 years ago … you’d be sitting just shy of $3.3 million today, even after the S&P’s recent 12.3% drop. My point is: We’ve been in a bull market for most of the last 13 years, and that hasn’t changed over the last 13 days.” And a further piece of advice was relayed by the Green Zone Fortunes co-editor [Charles Sizemore when he wrote,]( “We want to stay objective. It’s easier said than done, of course. It goes against all our instincts and hard-wiring, but this is why investing is profitable. If it were easy and risk-free, there would be no return. Or fun.” And fellow Money Movers, we do like to have fun here, don’t we? Of course, we do. And if you want to hear more from Adam and Charles, the life of the investing party, you can subscribe to Green Zone Fortunes where you will get more of their words of wisdom. [Click here]( for more information. So, everyone take a breath. Despite the market volatility that plagues us, things are going to be ok! --------------------------------------------------------------- [Turn Your Images On] [Google Says “It’s Time To Split!”]( by Shawn Ambrosino What’s that ONE thing that excites you the most? You know what I’m talking about… Is there an event that gets you excited every time it comes around? What makes you unable to contain the anticipation you feel? What gets you positively giddy just because it’s around the corner? When I was a kid, it was Christmas. I loved (and still do love) Christmas–not for the gifts as much as the special feeling of closeness with my loved ones on that day. As I got into my teen years, it changed. Instead of Christmas, it was Saturday nights, when I would drive the 30 miles north to see my then-girlfriend. It’s changed a lot since then. At one point it was the South Florida Fair, then it was the Renaissance festival, then it became fall weather for a long weekend in Vermont (my favorite state in the union… so far. Alaska or Hawaii may be in the running if I ever visit them). We all have those things. The same holds true for a lot of investors, and there are a few very exciting events that make them happier than anything. The first is an IPO of a GREAT company. Watching an IPO’s first week is something fun. Seeing the people that are behind it go against people simply buying to make a quick buck, and then trying to figure out which side will win, is riveting entertainment. However, another GREAT event on Wall Street is the stock split. For those that don’t know (I know you do… but I have to explain for anyone who’s new to the game), a stock split happens when the board of directors of a company decides that they have room for growth. They split their stock to increase the number of shares outstanding by issuing more shares to current shareholders - and that brings the price per share down. That’s it. Most stock splits tend to be 2-1 or 3-1, meaning for each stock you own, you’ll get two or three in return equivalent to the same price of your single share. On February 1st, Google’s parent company Alphabet (GOOG), issued a statement that they'll be doing a split–but this isn’t going to be an ordinary split. It’s not 2-1 or even 5-1… No, Google is going to be doing a whopping 20-1 split! That’s CRAZY! Right now, shares of GOOG are trading at about $2800 per share. After the stock split (scheduled to take place in July), each share will be worth roughly $140. That will bring a lot more investors on board, and thereby drive the value of the company up yet again. However, there’s another reason that people are excited about the Google stock split… Stock splits can be infectious, and other companies may follow suit, setting up all kinds of profit opportunities for investors who simply can’t afford all of the stocks they want. Why? Well, according to Bank of America, companies that split their stock tend to outperform the market. In fact, S&P stocks that have split have tended to gain an average of 25% over the next 12 months compared to the 9% gain for the index itself. So, if a giant company can gain more value by issuing more shares, they’ll do it, but there always needs to be one brave soul that goes first–and this time, it’s Google. So how does this happen? Well, BoA analysts have their theories, saying, “Some of the outperformance is likely due to momentum. Companies that announce splits have likely seen sustained market outperformance and expect that outperformance to continue. Underlying strength in the company is a primary driver of elevated prices. Once the split is executed, investors who have wanted to gain or increase exposure may start to rush for the chance to buy.” As I said, the split will bring in buyers…and every company listed on any index wants to bring in more buyers. So, now that the door has been opened, a few–or maybe many–other companies may follow suit, and that could be a very good thing for us. Keep your eyes peeled, folks. We may keep this bull running yet! --------------------------------------------------------------- For more quality content like this, and to learn more about the Money Moves team, visit us at [( Privacy Policy The Money & Markets, P.O. Box 8378, Delray Beach, FL 33482. 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