zimmytws/iStock via Getty Images The NCAA’s March Madness tournament is an annual opportunity to learn humility. I know I’ve written about this in past years, but the odds of filling out a perfect bracket are astronomical. It’s worth addressing again in 2024, starting with a quote from the NCAA itself. Early in March, while everyone was speculating about who’d be eligible for placement to begin with, it wrote how: “Every year, millions of people fill out a bracket for the NCAA tournament. If you’re like ...

triloks Welcome back to my weekly variety show! Two of my favorite sectors of the stock market are enjoying a nice rally over the last few days. Those two sectors are Real Estate (VNQ) and Utilities (XLU). (Yes, I know -- REITs and utilities. I'm really popular at cocktail parties.) Data by YCharts This mini-rally has coincided with a drop in the 10-year Treasury rate from its recent high of 4.34% to today's level of 4.2%. Well-capitalized, investment grade REITs and utilities are definitely able to gro ...

mohd izzuan/iStock via Getty Images To quote the pithy Abraham Lincoln, Better to be silent and thought a fool than post your thoughts on the Internet and remove all doubt. Is that how the quote goes? It's something along those lines. Well, I don't claim to have ole Abe's wisdom, but I'd like to think my Internet verbosity is at least honest. In that spirit, I recently penned "Sunbeams And Storm Clouds: Investing For Slow Growth, Disinflation, And Lower Rates," acknowledging the limits of my knowledge o ...

Imagesbybarbara/iStock Unreleased via Getty ImagesI've been buying Agree Realty's (NYSE:ADC) common shares in response to continued weakness with shares down roughly 20% over the last year to change hands for 13.9x times its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter annualized AFFO. A year ago this multiple was 18x. The retail REIT reported fourth-quarter AFFO of $1 per share, growing by 5.2% over its year-ago comp. ADC last declared a monthly cash dividend of $0.2470 per share, this was kept unchanged from the prior ...

In an ecosystem of high interest rates, targeting high-yield dividend stocks to buy might seem risky. After all, why bother dealing with the volatility of publicly traded businesses when you can buy safe, secure government bonds? The thesis isn’t as irrational as it sounds.Sure, you can grab 10-year Treasuries that yield 4.3%. For the buy-and-hold types, that’s admittedly quite a deal. However, with the Federal Reserve possibly toying with the idea of interest rate cuts down the line, the buying opportunity ...

swissmediavision/iStock via Getty Images As I’ve discussed many times on Seeking Alpha, I began writing in 2010 just as stocks were beginning to claw back from the Great Recession. Prior to that time, I was a real estate developer, so I felt the pain of the meltdown firsthand. In the real estate arena (where I have significant experience), we saw many lenders collapse in 2008 and 2009, as the financial collapse was only paralleled by the Great Depression. It also saw the end of Lehman Bros and Bear Ster ...

chaofann Generally speaking, I try to avoid falling in love with my stocks. If something becomes overpriced, I sell. However, there are some exceptions that I plan to hold forever, or at the very least, for a very long time to come. These are REITs (VNQ) that have exceptional business models that generate above-average returns with below-average risk, and unless something dramatic changes, I expect their historic outperformance to continue for a long time to come. They own great assets Enjoy strong balance ...

Wise investors know the value of dependable real estate investment trusts (REITs).They remain one of the best ways to strengthen a portfolio and generate consistent income. Also, many of the top REITs can be bought on the cheap, allowing investors to collect high yields while waiting for the stock to recover. Plus, if we see interest rate cuts this year, REITs will become even more attractive. After all, lower interest rates will help increase property value. So this decreases REIT borrowing costs, which th ...

mbortolino/E+ via Getty ImagesAs most of my regular readers know, I was a real estate developer for over twenty years. I started out small, building free-standing stores for companies like Advance Auto (AAP), O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY), and Dollar General (DG). I enjoyed investing in free-standing properties because they’re less risky than many other property sectors, such as hotels and golf courses. (My real estate empire was destroyed because my business partner “bet the farm” on a hotel in my hometow ...

The surging market has left some strong companies behind, including in the realm of real estate dividend stocks. Now might be the time to consider adding a couple to the income-focused portion of a growth-and-income portfolio.Ten years is a good window to keep in mind when looking at long-term buy-and-hold stocks, and there's no time like the present to look for bargains in a bull market just recently born.Ten years is also a good measure to use as you look back on the past performance of your prospective p ...