Here’s another ‘Article of Interest’ post. I was able to churn out the previous post in this series about a month ago… so not too long of a wait, right? This is now the 9th post in this series.
To recap the intent of this series… every now and then, when perusing investing or personal finance articles across the Internet, I come across what I call an ‘Article of Interest’, or ‘A of I’ for short.
I decided it might be helpful to share a link to the article in case some of my visitors would find it of interest as well.
In most cases, the article will focus on dividend-paying stocks or dividend growth investing (DGI). However, other finance-related topics might be highlighted, too.
Now that we are up-to-speed, let’s see what this A of I is about…
Link Overview
Today’s link takes you to an article from U.S. News & World Report (or U.S. News, for short). I think this is my first time referring you to an article from this site.
From Wikipedia… U.S. News is an American media company that publishes news, opinion, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. Founded as a news magazine in 1933, U.S. News transitioned to primarily web-based publishing in 2010.
This particular article lists the “10 Best Dividend Stocks in the First Half of 2020.” However, that headline is a bit misleading. Here’s the caveat. To make the list the stocks needed to yield more than the average S&P 500 stock (currently around 1.9%). Thus, you won’t find stocks such Apple (AAPL) or Microsoft (MSFT) on the list (despite their massive price gains in the first half of 2020) due to their lower dividend yield. Basically, the author was on the lookout for the combination of growth and income.
The returns for the listed dividend-paying stocks range from a low of 8% to a high of 45%. That’s quite the feat given the carnage that ravaged the market during the start of the pandemic.
The dividend yields range from 2.0% to 4.8%.
Each stock comes with a brief overview, as well as listing the following info:
- Dividend Yield
- Performance in 1H of 2020
The stocks are listed in order of increasing returns for the 1H of 2020… so they saved the best return for last. Kudos to you if this stock was in your portfolio to start the year.
Looking over the list, I have 4 of the 10 stocks in my Portfolio: BlackRock (BLK), Abbvie (ABBV), Fastenal (FAST), and Gilead Sciences (GILD). I also owned Crown Castle International (CCI) at the beginning of the year, but sold out of my entire position by mid-March during the “paring down of REITs” in my Portfolio to start 2020.
How many of the listed companies are in your portfolio? Did you have the #1 stock?
I hope you find the article useful and/or enjoyable. As always, please share your thoughts once you’ve had a chance to read the material.
See you next time…