Why Buy “Broke” Blue Chips? These 5 Small Caps Pay up to 17%

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: June 6, 2025

Small-cap stocks haven’t been this cheap in decades. This valuation advantage gets interesting when we add big fat dividends and today, we’ll discuss five cheap small stocks yielding between 8.3% and 17.1%. (That’s no typo by the way—we only talk serious dividends here at Contrarian Outlook!)

The Apples, Google and Microsofts of the world are priced like luxury goods. Smaller stocks, meanwhile, have been left at the discount rack. Let’s shop:

  • S&P 500: 21.2 times earnings (pricey!)
  • S&P MidCap 400: 15.4 times (better…)
  • S&P SmallCap 600: 14.7 times (bingo!)

The valuation spread between the S&P 500 and S&P 600 hasn’t been this wide since Bill Clinton was wondering whether dot-com was one word or two.… Read more

3 Popular Gold Funds to Dump Now (and a Top 9% Dividend to Buy Now)

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: June 5, 2025

Here’s a surprise from a die-hard closed-end fund (CEF) fan like me: Sometimes CEFs aren’t your best bet.

I’ll admit, that’s tough for me to say—especially when the average CEF yields a historically high 9.1%. (CEF yields are usually around 8.5%). That high yield partly reflects the fact that many CEFs are trading at steep discounts to their net asset value (NAV).

Translation: The fund is trading for less than what its underlying portfolio is worth. That, in turn, has resulted in lower prices among some CEFs, along with higher yields (as yields and prices move in opposite directions).

All of this simply means that CEFs are generally out of favor right now, which is an opportunity for us.… Read more

S&P 9000: Robots Boost Profits and Your Dividends to 9.7%

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: June 4, 2025

Big companies are about to make even more money. They have discovered they no longer need armies of new hires to grow—extremely bullish news for shareholders because human employees are expensive.

Good ones can also be notoriously elusive. For example, I’m the longest-standing member of my kids’ school marketing committee, and we’re always scrambling for volunteers (what non-profit isn’t?).

Until now, that is.

Over the weekend, we welcomed the most talented marketer I’ve ever worked with to our team: ChatGPT 4.5. “GPT” graciously accepted our volunteer position, and we’re already actively boosting online referrals for the school. I’m learning cutting-edge “AI referral” techniques straight from the entity that invented them.… Read more

Gold Just Got Cheaper and It’s Jet Fuel for This 8.3% Dividend

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: June 3, 2025

Gold prices have taken a breather—and we’re getting a rare opportunity to snag two shimmering dividend plays paying up to 8.3%.

Here’s why this setup is on the table: While recession worries are still valid, they’re overblown. Plus, the doomsayers are missing critical details set to kick gold higher. Let’s break all of this down, then get into the 8.3% (and growing) payouts the archaic metal is poised to deliver.

The “No-Landing” Economy: Alive, Well—and Bullish for Gold

Last fall, we talked about a “no-landing” economy in the US, where growth ticks along, but inflation sticks around, too. Fast-forward to today, and that’s pretty much how things have played out.… Read more

3 Cheap 12%+ Dividends the Rebound Left Behind

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: June 2, 2025

We’ve got a rare “delayed reaction” income play on our hands right now. Thanks to the April stock-market plunge, we can now pick up 12%+ dividends at attractive discounts. But I don’t expect this opportunity to last very long.

I know early April feels like a while ago, but it created our opportunity, and the chance to buy is still available today. It lies in closed-end funds (CEFs). (I’ll show you three that pay those outsized 12%+ yields in just a second.)

In a nutshell, these three funds trade at discounts to their portfolio values—known as “net asset value,” or NAV, in CEF-speak.… Read more

These 9%-14% Dividends Are Hiding in Plain Sight

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: May 30, 2025

Most mainstream financial websites are not “smart enough” to include special dividends. The yields they display reflect plain ol’ quarterly or monthly payouts.

For most stocks this does not matter. But for a select few “special payers” this is a costly oversight. One that we can capitalize on as thoughtful contrarians.

In a moment we’ll discuss five special dividends. The vanilla screens say they pay as little as 3.2% but in reality they dish up to 13.8%!

What exactly is a special dividend payment?

It is a one-time cash payout, often the result of a massive cash influx from, say, selling off part of the company or having an unusually profitable year.… Read more

Why We’re Buying This US Debt Downgrade (Starting With This 9% Dividend)

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: May 29, 2025

This latest US debt downgrade is a buying opportunity for us contrarians. I say that because we had the same (profitable) setup the last three times the ratings agencies took Uncle Sam’s credit rating down a peg.

You might find that last sentence surprising. Three times? Indeed, the US government has seen its debt downgraded on three different occasions: 2011, 2023 and most recently a couple of weeks ago.

You can be forgiven for not remembering all of these: In some cases (2023 comes to mind), they didn’t really make headlines. In others, they set up a small dip in stocks (and stock-focused closed-end funds yielding 8%+) that was well worth buying.… Read more

Big, Beautiful Bond Yields Up to 11%: For Contrarians Only

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: May 28, 2025

The “big, beautiful bill” has turned into a bitter pill for bonds. As you’ve undoubtedly heard, bond buyers aren’t exactly thrilled about lending more money to a $36 trillion debtor that’s digging itself deeper into a financial ditch.

Prior to the proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)—famous for crunching numbers through rose-colored glasses—already projected a $1.9 trillion deficit for 2025. Now, the CBO estimates that the current House-passed version of OBBBA will add an extra $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

This leaves Uncle Sam staring into a $40 trillion hole, deepening by roughly $2 trillion each year.… Read more

Why I’m Choosing a Measly 0.66% Dividend Over a Well-Known 6% Payer

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: May 27, 2025

If you’re like me, when you see an outsized dividend yield, you stop and immediately do the mental math. How much would we get back in payouts from, say, a 9.3% payer if we were to invest $10,000? Or $20,000? Or $100,000?

But savvy contrarians we are, we know to push back on this initial reaction and look deeper.

That’s because of something I know pretty much goes unsaid among contrarian income investors like us: Those big yields can be (and usually are) a danger sign. Truth is, a rising dividend is only one possible reason for a high payout.

And in fact, it’s the least likely one.Read more

What Investors Get Wrong About CEF Fees (and Miss Out on 8%+ Yields)

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: May 26, 2025

Plenty of investors miss out on the huge yields (often north of 8%) that closed-end funds (CEFs) offer. There’s one simple reason why: They get way too hung up on management fees.

We’re going to look at a few reasons why that is today—and one easy way you can make those fees disappear entirely.

But first, just how high are the fees we’re talking about? Well, the average fee for all CEFs tracked by my CEF Insider service is 2.95% of assets. In contrast, the largest ETF on the planet, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), has a fee of just 0.09%.… Read more