Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases

Paul Dykewicz

Five stocks to purchase for double-digit-percentage dividend increases may appeal to investors seeking refuge from the fallout of recent bank failures.

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The five stocks to purchase for double-digit-percentage dividend increases look interesting a time when the market has been choppy, and questions loom about where to invest funds as three large banks have been taken over by regulators within the past two weeks. A bonus with these five stocks to purchase for double-digit-percentage dividend increases is that each has growth prospects that should support the payouts and price-share increases that investors seek.

The three big bank closures in the past 10 days should not affect any of these stocks that stand out for their recent double-digit-percentage dividend increases. Santa Clara, California-based Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ: SIVB), New York’s Signature Bank (NASDAQ: SBNY) and La Jolla, California-based Silvergate Bank (NYSE: SI) each collapsed due to excess risk taking.

Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases Amid Bank Failures

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“When the Fed is openly supporting stock markets and economic growth, it’s easy to make money by taking a lot of risk,” said Bob Carlson, a pension fund chairman and leader of the Retirement Watch investment newsletter. “But when the Fed changes course, risk management is important to success and survival. SVB had weak risk management. Investors need to look beyond a firm’s financial numbers and try to determine if it has adequate risk management policies.”

Retirement Watch head Bob Carlson discusses investing with Paul Dykewicz.

As a pension fund chairman, Carlson is seasoned about managing investment risks. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Fairfax County Employees’ Retirement System since 1992 and been elected to serve as its chairman every year since 1995.

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Another experienced investment guide who appreciates dividend-paying stocks is Mark Skousen, PhD, who recommended a profitable one in his Forecasts & Strategies investment newsletter when the market sputtered during the pandemic. Dividend-paying and New York-based Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) rose 54.76% from December 2015 to July 2021, while Skousen recommended it.

Skousen, who also leads the Five Star Trader advisory service that features stocks and options, identified weakness developing in the stocks and the market when he told his subscribers to take profits. As an economics professor, Skousen tracks inflation and recession risk closely.

Mark Skousen, a scion of Ben Franklin and head of Five Star Trader, meets Paul Dykewicz.

Deere Plows Among Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases

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Moline, Illinois-based Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) has had a rising dividend policy since 1988, and it boosted its payout by 10.6% with a pair of increases in the past six months. Skousen, who recommended the stock during January to subscribers of his Five Star Trader advisory service, grew up on a 50-acre farm outside Portland, Oregon, where he drove the Deere tractor of his father, Leroy Skousen.

Skousen observed that Deere is selling under 16 times forward earnings and has a return on equity (ROE) of 37%. Skousen, who heads the Forecasts & Strategies investment newsletter, further recommended specific call options in Deere, which can ascend much faster than the stock price.

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

According to Zacks Research, Wall Street estimates have been rising recently, with earnings growth expected to increase by 20% during fiscal year 2023.

Deere Intrigues Portia Capital Among Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases

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Deere has done an “excellent job” supporting its stock price by repurchasing 25% of its shares outstanding in the past 10 years, said Michelle Connell, head of Dallas-based Portia Capital Management.

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The company is known for buying shares when valuations are low and using its cash for these purchases, Connell continued. There have been some concerns regarding Deere’s insider sales of approximately $4 million in 2022, she added.

“These don’t bother me,” Connell counseled. “Executives frequently have tight windows for the sales of their shares, and estate planning may also be part of the executives’ strategy. I like DE because it takes advantage of the fact that that as a population increases, the demand for affordable food increases as well.”

Michelle Connell leads Dallas-based Portia Capital Management.

Oracle Is Among Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases

Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), a multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas, recently reported solid fiscal third-quarter results, despite a “modest miss” of $52 million on revenue due to a mix-shift to more subscription revenue, according to a research note from Chicago-based investment firm William Blair & Co. Meanwhile, non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) showed that Oracle’s operating margin improved from the prior two quarters to 42%, and non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) were ahead of consensus estimates by two cents. Constant-currency revenue growth in the third quarter, excluding contribution from health technology business Oracle Cerner, reached 7%, driven by continued demand for Oracle’s cloud business.

Oracle management provided fourth-quarter revenue guidance in line with consensus estimates and non-GAAP EPS ahead by $0.11, despite a 2-percentage point currency headwind. Though traction for Oracle’s cloud portfolio continues to be the major driver of growth and management expects the business to accelerate, William Blair expressed concern about Oracle’s positioning in the database market, as well as the continued macro uncertainty that management alleges has had a limited impact on growth.

The analysts also are monitoring the impact on free cash flow from the integration of the company’s lower-margin Oracle Cerner business, as well as continued investments in capital expenditures of approximately $2 billion per quarter through most of fiscal 2024. At an enterprise value to free cash flow multiple of 36 times calendar 2023 estimates and a balanced risk/reward equation for the stock, William Blair rates the stock “market perform.”

With the double-digit-percentage dividend increase of 25%, Oracle offers the potential of a technology stock that should climb in the future and a rising dividend payout.

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

American Express Is One of Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases 

New York-based American Express (NYSE: AXP) is best known as a credit card services provider, but it describes itself as an integrated payments platform. While most companies are incorporating a slowing economy and an uptick in unemployment and charge-offs in 2023, recent trends and management commentary suggest performance through February is tracking in line with or slightly better than expectations, according to Chicago-based investment firm William Blair.

Broadly, the labor market remains strong and consumer balance sheets are under levered, payment rates are moderating but remain elevated, and stable consumer spending is resilient, as U.S. unadjusted ex-auto retail sales rose 8.0% in January/February versus +7.2% in the December quarter, the investment firm noted.

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“We anticipate loan growth to moderate and charge-offs to increase in 2023,” William Blair opined. “Despite the recent volatility, we are very comfortable with the strength of the balance sheets of the large issuers including American Express, Discover, and Bread Financial as they all have significant deposits and hold securities on the balance sheet. These issuers have very small “unrealized losses” on their securities portfolios and also have access to ample other funding sources, including securitization of credit card assets.

Loan growth in the managed portfolio remains strong and consistent with January, up 21% for the group, and should contribute to both rising net interest income and credit losses in coming months, William Blair wrote. Managed loan 30-day delinquencies rose seven basis points month-to-month in February to 3.16% and is up 93 basis points year-over-year versus 2.23% in February 2022, while charge-offs rose 39 basis points month-to-month to 3.80% and are up 159 basis points year-over-year from 2.21% in February 2022.

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

The American Express Company’s board of directors announced on March 8 the approval of repurchasing up to 120 million common shares, in accordance with the company’s capital plans. The authorization replaced the approximately 36 million common shares of common stock previously approved in 2019.

The timing and amount of common shares purchased under the company’s authorized capital plans will depend on factors that include the company’s business plans, financial performance and market conditions.

Separately, the directors approved a $0.08, or 15%, increase in the quarterly dividend on the company’s common stock, consistent with a planned increase mentioned in the company’s fourth-quarter 2022 earnings release. The dividend was raised to $0.60 per common share, from $0.52, payable on May 10, 2023, to shareholders of record on April 7, 2023.

Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases Include Dicks’ Sporting Goods

Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS), based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, recently received a buy rating and a $170 price objective from BofA Global Research, in line with the recreation company’s historical average. The stock continues to benefit from the shift to solitary leisure activities, as well as an improving outlook for footwear allocations, BofA wrote in a recent research note.

Risks to attaining the price objective are potential weakening of the macro environment and rising gas prices. Secular headwinds in the golf category could come from weaker traffic trends, higher than-expected cost pressures and the risk of a more competitive pricing environment, the investment firm added.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is the largest sporting goods company in the United States and offers differentiated product lines and private label assortment, according to BofA. The company recently boosted its dividend payout by 104.9%.

Dick’s Sporting Goods sells virtually every imaginable athletic product. It also is where I bought my last softball glove.

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

Five Stocks to Purchase for Double-Digit-Percentage Dividend Increases Highlight Hess

In addition, BofA recommends Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES), which recently increased its dividend payout by 16.8%. The New-York-based company faces similar risks to those of Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), except that the news flow around HES’ exploratory and appraisal drilling activities could hurt the stock. Upsides to the price objective include higher oil and gas prices, BofA wrote.

The company’s free cash flow outlook is the only growth story among the U.S. exploration and productions companies, BofA wrote in a research note. While the near-term multiple on Hess is high versus its peers, it is not high enough, according to BofA.

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The investment firm sees price appreciation in the future of Hess. When that outlook is combined with a rising dividend policy, Hess offers an enticing opportunity for income seekers.

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

China’s Xi Visits Russia While Japan’s Leader Goes to Ukraine Meet with President Zelenksy

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine’s President Zelensky in Kyiv Tuesday, March 21, at the same time Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks. Xi called Putin a “dear friend,” even though the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Friday, March 17, for the Russian president and accused him of having responsibility for war crimes in Ukraine that followed the invasion he ordered on Feb. 24 last year.

Putin committed the “war crime” of overseeing the unlawful abduction and deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, among others, the court stated in a press release. The visit by Xi appears aimed at shifting blame for the war in Ukraine to the United States and its allies, analysts said. Putin called the attack on Ukraine a “special military” operation that had turned into an extended affair of more than one year, even though Russia’s leaders reportedly expected a quick victory.

CDC Shows Vaccinations Against New Bivalent Variant of COVID-19 Keep Rising

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported rising vaccination rates against COVID-19 and its bivalent variant. The CDC reports that 269,650,596 people, or 81.2% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, as of March 15. People who have completed the primary COVID-19 doses totaled 230,211,943 of the U.S. population, or 69.3%, according to the CDC. Also as of March 15, the United States has given a bivalent COVID-19 booster to 51,094,257 people who are age 18 and up, equaling 19.8%. Vaccinations should help consumers shop, travel and spend money to aid the economy.

The five stocks to purchase for double-digit-percentage dividend increases feature companies that offer potential capital appreciation and rising payouts. All five could be enticing for investors concerned about the three big bank failures, Russia’s continuing war against Ukraine and stubborn inflation.

Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street JournalInvestor’s Business DailyUSA Today, the Journal of Commerce, Seeking Alpha, Guru Focus and other publications and websites. Paul, who can be followed on Twitter @PaulDykewicz, is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. He is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz. The uplifting book is great gift and is endorsed by Joe Montana, Joe Theismann, Ara Parseghian, “Rocket” Ismail, Reggie Brooks, Dick Vitale and many othersCall 202-677-4457 for special pricing on multiple-book purchases.

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