{"id":29417,"date":"2012-05-02T08:44:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T12:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/2012\/05\/5-boring-stocks-5-sexy-yields\/"},"modified":"2012-05-02T08:44:59","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T12:44:59","slug":"5-boring-stocks-5-sexy-yields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2012\/05\/02\/5-boring-stocks-5-sexy-yields\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Boring Stocks, 5 Sexy Yields"},"content":{"rendered":"

By The Sizemore Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

Investing is not all that different from choosing a spouse.\u00a0 At some point in every man\u2019s life, he has to make a choice.\u00a0 Does he go for the alluring but volatile<\/em> young vixen who will ultimately put him in an early grave, or does he take the more rational course of action and choose a mature, dependable companion to spend his life with?\u00a0 (Women face similar choices themselves; to marry the handsome but unpredictable young buck or the more stable\u2014if somewhat boring\u2014workhorse?).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nice if you can have it all, of course; romance and <\/em>stability in a partner.<\/p>\n

For investors, much the same can be said about stocks.\u00a0 \u00a0Sexy \u201cglamour\u201d stocks\u2014and the heartburn they often bring\u2014are best left to shorter-term traders.\u00a0 Bonds offer stability but nothing in the way of excitement.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are looking for something in the middle\u2014predictable, long-term wealth building\u2014dividend-paying stocks are likely your best option.\u00a0 They allow you reach your financial goals while still managing to sleep at night.<\/p>\n

Today, I\u2019m going to recommend five boring stocks with sexy yields.\u00a0 We\u2019ll start with that most mundane of American retailers Wal-Mart (NYSE: $<\/span>WMT<\/a>)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Wal-Mart is about as dull as it gets as a company; the world\u2019s largest retailer of the basic \u201cstuff\u201d of modern life\u2014everything from food to build-it-yourself furniture.<\/p>\n

But Wal-Mart also \u00a0happens to be a dividend-growing dynamo.\u00a0 In 2002, just 10 years ago, Wal-Mart paid $0.075 per quarter in dividends.\u00a0 Today, it pays $0.398\u2014an increase of more than five times.<\/p>\n

With Wal-Mart\u2019s domestic expansion slowing in the years ahead (and thus needing less cash for investment), I expect the company to continue aggressively raising its dividend.\u00a0 The stock currently yields an attractive 2.7%, which is substantially more than what most bonds pay.<\/p>\n

Next on the list is consumer products giant Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:$<\/span>KMB<\/a>).<\/strong>\u00a0 If you thought it was impossible for a company to be more boring than Wal-Mart, then you failed to consider Kimberly-Clark.\u00a0 The company manufactures and sells diapers, Kleenex, and other basic products you might find in your bathroom.<\/p>\n

But like Wal-Mart, Kimberly-Clark is a dividend-raising dynamo.\u00a0 Over the past decade, its quarterly dividend has risen from $0.30 to $0.74; not too shabby when you consider what a volatile decade it has been. \u00a0Kimberly-Clark currently yields 3.7%.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t mention Kimberly-Clark without mentioning its much larger rival Procter & Gamble (NYSE: $<\/span>PG<\/a>)<\/strong>.\u00a0 Chances are good that half or more of the products in your bathroom and laundry room were made by Procter & Gamble, at least if you are an American (overseas, rival Unilever (NYSE:$<\/span>UL<\/a>)<\/strong> tends to dominate).\u00a0 They make Crest toothpaste, Gillette razors, Charmin toilet paper, and Pampers diapers, among many, many other brands. \u00a0This is a company that Warren Buffett has dabbled in for years, and it\u2019s easy to understand why.\u00a0 Demand for its products is stable, and its brands have incredible intangible value.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, P&G has raised its quarterly dividend from $0.19 to $0.562; again, not a bad run.\u00a0 The stock currently yields 3.5%.<\/p>\n

Moving on, let\u2019s take a look at the oh-so-boring world of natural gas transportation. \u00a0\u00a0On this front, I recommend Williams Companies (NYSE: WMB)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Stop for a minute and think.\u00a0 Can you think of anything more boring than natural gas transportation?\u00a0 Yeah, me neither.<\/p>\n

But William\u2019s dullness is its strength.\u00a0 Natural gas pipelines are stable, predictable businesses, regardless of what happens to the price of gas.\u00a0 And if anything, the current glut in natural gas supplies should bode well for pipeline companies like Williams.\u00a0 Cheaper prices encourage higher consumption.<\/p>\n

Williams Companies is an IRA-friendly way to get access to the master limited partnership Williams Partners (NYSE:$<\/span>WPZ<\/a>)<\/strong>.\u00a0 For tax reasons that go beyond the scope of this article, master limited partnerships cannot be held in IRA accounts.\u00a0 But as a corporation with a large ownership interest in a partnership, WMB can.<\/p>\n

Williams Companies \u00a0currently yields 3.1%, and I expect this to rise substantially over time.<\/p>\n

Finally, I want to put out one recommendation that is likely to get your pulse racing a little more than the rest: Spanish telecom juggernaut Telefonica (NYSE: $<\/span>TEF<\/a>)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There is little more boring than a telecom utility.\u00a0 While you may \u201cooh and ah\u201d over your latest iPhone, you generally spend very little time thinking about the company that provides cellular service to it.<\/p>\n

Telefonica would have to be considered \u201criskier\u201d than the rest of these recommendations by virtue of being domiciled in Spain.\u00a0 But with a yield of over 11% at current prices, I consider it a risk worth taking.<\/p>\n

Telefonica gets nearly half of its revenues from the fast-growing markets of Latin America, so continued recessionary conditions in Spain do not present an undue risk to Telefonica\u2019s business.\u00a0 Disruptions to the European financial system could result in the company cutting its dividend to preserve cash, but I consider this unlikely and, again, a risk worth taking for the potential rewards.<\/p>\n

Disclosures: All securities mentioned are holdings of the Sizemore Capital Dividend Growth Portfolio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By The Sizemore Letter Investing is not all that different from choosing a spouse.\u00a0 At some point in every man\u2019s life, he has to make a choice.\u00a0 Does he go for the alluring but volatile young vixen who will ultimately put him in an early grave, or does he take the more rational course of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “5 Boring Stocks, 5 Sexy Yields”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}