Last month, I was a speaker at the MoneyShow investor conference in Las Vegas. I enjoy presenting there very much. I also love to learn what other investment services like mine are recommending to their subscribers.
So I took some notes.
At the MoneyShow, I gave two solo presentations. I discussed the rapidly expanding universe of high-yield, option strategy ETFs during one. My other presentation explained defined maturity bond ETFs and how to integrate them into a diversified portfolio.
My final event was as one of the panelists on a five-member panel of experts with a theme of sharing some of our favorite stocks for 2024. Each panelist recommended five to six stocks, so there were a lot of very interesting investment ideas.
Several of the panel members discussed a few of the same stocks. Each of us had different analysis approaches and investment strategies, so I thought that stocks that worked for three or more experts would be of interest to a lot of investors.
Here are three stocks with widespread mention from the panelists and my thoughts:
3M Co. (MMM) was highlighted as a Dividend Aristocrat with an above-average yield. 3M Company has increased its dividend for 65 straight years. The current yield is 6.5%. Those are very attractive numbers for investors interested in blue-chip dividend stocks.
I wasn’t one of the 3M Co. fans. I think the dividend growth rate of 2% over the last five years is unappealing. With a bit of work, it’s not hard to find solid companies with yield plus dividend growth numbers significantly higher than the 8.5% total of 3M Co.
Enterprise Product Partners LP (EPD) is an energy midstream company organized as a master limited partnership (MLP). With a $60 billion market cap, Enterprise Product Partners LP is the largest company in the MLP sector. It recently became a Dividend Aristocrat with 25 consecutive years of dividend growth. The yield of 7.5% plus a five-year average payout growth of 3% makes Enterprise Product Partners LP more attractive than MMM.
The problem with MLPs is that they send Schedules K-1 to investors for tax reporting. K-1s complicate your tax return, and these investments should not be owned in qualified plans such as IRAs and Roth IRAs. The MLP world has shrunk to a handful of very capable companies, so I recommend owning an actively managed MLP ETF, which sends out a 1099 at tax time.
Hercules Capital Inc. (HTGC) is a business development company (BDC) that provides debt and equity funding in the venture capital world. BDCs are pass-through entities, so they must pay out 90% of net investment income as dividends to investors. Hercules Capital yields 8.5%. The company has grown its dividends by 5% per year over the last five years and has paid supplemental dividends every quarter since 2020.
Hercules Capital has been a recommended stock to my Dividend Hunter subscribers since 2015. I consider it to be one of the top two or three BDCs. With dividends reinvested, Hercules Capital returned 145% over the last five years.
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Savings accounts paying 5% right now are hard to pass up. But what if I show you 3 stocks that could pay double what they’re paying… and they’ll do that for the next decade. Today, I’m releasing my next “Decade of Dividends” stocks to buy and hold over the next 10 years. Take a look.
