Updates on First Solar and The Five Best Dividend Stocks on the Planet
Don’t forget this week’s Live Q&A Chat today at 2pm EST at http://tradingwithcody.com/chat.
In yesterday’s post, I outlined why and analyzed just how hard it is to find any safe haven that pays what used to be a paltry return of just 5% these days. I finished by asking you, “I’d love to hear from any of you if you’ve found what you think is a safe haven for some of your money that’s actually paying you 5% interest or more right now,” and I really am sincere in looking for ideas from any and all of you.
Historically-speaking, interest-bearing accounts have never paid so little, as most money market and savings accounts pay less than 1% per year. Even if you get double or nearly triple that in government bonds, you’re still talking about getting less than inflation on your money.
And I don’t count stocks paying big dividend yields count as a “safe haven.” Of course not. Stocks, all stocks can crash, even those as steady as Verizon or General Mills, both of which I highlighted a year ago in I wrote:
The Five Best Dividend Stocks on the Planet
In that post from last April, I’d highlighted a basket of five relatively high-yielding stocks for my subscribers, and it’s enlightening to update each.
Icahn Enterprises, is up a whopping 60% since I highlighted it for my subscribers back in April of last year when I wrote that article. Investors have also gotten nearly 8% in dividend payments over the last year. The stock still yields an attractive 5.7% right now at these levels, but this one’s probably the riskiest of the bunch.
Intel is up about 20% since I wrote that article and I soon added Intel to my personal portfolio later on. The stock is still yielding nearly 4% here, and that’s mighty attractive. The Intel investments in mobile need to pay off big or they’ll be in trouble long-term, as mobile CPUs become ever bigger part of the CPU marketplace.
Simo has also rocketed up about 50% since last April when I featured it, and investors have also received 5% in dividend payments. The stock is currently one of my friend Robert Marcin’s favorite stocks, and if I wasn’t already heavily weighted in tech, I’d probably add this one to the portfolio still at these levels.
Verizon is about flat since I wrote that article, but investors have received a full 5% in dividend payments from the company since I highlighted it. I still like Verizon here and it still has a 4.6% dividend yield.
General Mills is, like Verizon, about flat since I first highlighted it. The dividend has been steady and paid out more than 3% over the last year. I’d probably avoid General Mills and would look to sell it if I owned it. Over the next twenty years, I expect that processed food will lose huge market share to local, fresher food and that pendulum will never shift back.
All that said, remember that if there’s a major market pullback these stocks are all susceptible to the downswing. And as I’ve reminded you before, Alcatel and Nortel, for example, used to pay a decent dividends and were considered a “blue chips” and rather safe, but that didn’t work out in the long-run.
By the way, First Solar is up huge again today to new highs. I’ve owned it for the last year since it was in the $30s, when coincidentally, I’d added it (see: Trade Alert – Scaling into one of our alternative energy ideas the day after The Five Best Dividend Stocks on the Planet was published.
I’m holding my FSLR steady as you might have expected. I think we got in very early on the alternative energy rebound.
Finally, I would love to hear from any of you with ideas about how to get a safe yield of at least 5%. Please leave a comment below or come join the discussion we’ve having about this right now on Scutify.com.
