CVS Health (CVS) will raise its annual dividend by 10% to $2.20 from $2.00 effective with the dividend payout scheduled for February 1. The company has also authorized a $10 billion share buyback program. The company also raised guidance for the full 2021 year to revenue of at least $290.3 billion and earnings of at least $8.00 a share.
I’m starting up my videos on JubakAM.com again–this time using YouTube as a platform. My sixty-ninth YouTube video “Trend of the Week Big Pharma for Safety” went up today.
Today I’m going to give you some picks and some rules for finding more candidates for the middle bucket, the 5-year bucket. In terms of the mechanics of a three-bucket income investment system, this middle bucket is critical since it the mechanism for turning the price appreciation of the long-term bucket into the cash income of the short term bucket. And it has to accomplish this task without taking on inordinate amounts of risk since a five-year holding period doesn’t allow a lot of time to recover losses from mistake.
Yesterday I started giving you specific picks so you can start to fill these buckets. I started with the short-term bucket, the most challenging of the three since it requires you to confront the current paucity of assets throwing off yields of even 2% head on. The goals for this bucket were maximum achievable safety since you don’t have much time in this bucket to recoup any temporary losses, a yield that’s as high as possible–anything over 3% these days is gravy. Remember that the higher the yield you can produce from this bucket, the less risk you’ll need to take in your portfolio, and predictable payments in actual cash (or cash equivalents). Remember that you want to be able to spend the returns from this bucket. Today I’m going to give you picks for filling out the third, the long-term, bucket.
That didn’t take long. On Thursday the Federal Reserve reported that all 23 big banks tested in its annual stress test, passed. Which means that the last remaining restrictions on dividend increases and share buybacks are now history. Yesterday big banks started to announce dividend increases
Like many oil-related stocks Kinder Morgan (KMI), the operator of 70,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, has moved up strongly during the recent rally in the price of oil. The stock, a member of my Dividend Portfolio since February 24, 2016, has gained 38.13% in 2021 to date as of the May 26 close. The stock has gained 26.67% in the last three months and 10.11% in the last month. The dividend, which produces a yield of 5.89% isn’t in danger. And I’m not selling because I’m worried about that potential. But growth at Kinder Morgan depends on the company’s ability to buy or build new pipeline capacity and earn a high rate of return on that investment.
Sure looks like a market struggling with rotations between growth and value stocks. One day the growth stocks sell off on fears of higher interest rates and rising inflation or something–and because after such a strong rally in the style growth stocks are very expensive. And that same day value stocks move higher because increasing economic growth is a very, very good thing for a style that depends on a strong economy for much of its revenue gains. The next day the market’s preference reverses and growth again outperforms value. What’s a poor investor to do? Especially the long-term investors with very long time horizons that are the focus for my new “Millennial Portfolio (for investors with more time than money.)” How about a few stocks that offer both growth and value? I’ve got two stocks today that I’m going to add to the Millennial Portfolio: Deere (DE) and Southern Copper (SCCO)
Copper has rallied–again–to a new 10-year high and that has taken Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold to $39.53 today, April 28, as of 3:50 p.m.. That’s above my target price in my Jubak Picks Portfolio of $34. So today I’m selling this position. The stock is up 39.34% as of 3:50 p.m. New York time since I added it to the portfolio on January 6, 2021. I still have substantial exposure to copper through my positions in Southern Copper (SCCO) in my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio and in my Dividend Portfolio.
NextEra Energy Partners (NEP), a subsidiary of utility NextEra Energy (NEE), will buy wind farms in California and New Hampshire from Brookfield Renewable Partners. The wind turbines have a combined capacity of 400 megawatts and have long-term contracts for their electricity. I added shares of NextEra Energy to my Dividend Portfolio on November 25, 2020. The stock is up 6.38% since then through the close on April 19.
Today, May 29, the Biden administration announced an ambitious plan to expand wind farms along the East Coast. The goal would be to see the United States produce 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030. That’s just a little ambitious since U.S. offshore wind power production right now is 30 megawatts (a gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts) from one wind farm off Rhode Island. Europe, in contrast, already has 24 gigawatts in operation, and the United Kingdom aims to have 40 gigawatts online by 2030Besides generating enough power for 10 million U.S. homes, the plan would cut 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
U.S. banks that pass their next stress tests will be allowed to raise their dividends after June 30, the Federal Reserve said today, March 25. The Fed will also lift any remaining restrictions on stock buybacks.
Hedges that can pay off on the downside and the upside are the most useful and most valuable. They also tend to be relatively rare. There aren’t a lot of these bets floating around in most markets just waiting for you to snap them up. However, I have found two hedges of just this sort in today’s market that I’m going to recommend to you today. (In this post I’m going to give you some of the nitty gritty numbers that support my recommendation for these two hedges. If you want to see some charts for copper and gold, banks and bonds check out the video I posted today.) I’m going to add these new recommendations to my standing Special Reports post tomorrow.
