Read it this morning, Eric. Nice read.
Most everything is in the upper range of valuation or over to me so I can understand the paucity of choices. Ingredion intrigues me but I have a couple of small positions to fill up first. I have to watch them. Sometimes the most interesting companies are the ones that aren't household names.
Good overview article. The only one that comes even close to my minimum yield hurdle of 5% is PM. But that's just me, I am retired and the low yielders do not put enough cash in my pocket.
"I am retired and the low yielders do not put enough cash in my pocket"
I agree with that sentiment. Buying a solid lower yield company on the dip, then selling calls about six months out usually gives a combined cash flow of 8%-10% for the period. Not too shabby if you don't mind what usually ends up being a transient holding. T is one of my current CC favorites. Buy the shares on a dip under $33., then sell six month out calls for $0.95-$1.10. The call income effectively doubles, or slightly more, the dividends such that the CC play kicks out about 6% for the period or 12% annualized. The small capital gain will pay for the trading costs.
I am retired and have a mix of higher yield (4-6%) and lower yield (2.5-3.5%) positions. I pay close attention to dividend increase rates as I require the pay raises to stay in a stock. What does this mean? It means I own BCE rather than T, for example. Overall portfolio yield is ~4%, and I plan to continue reinvesting dividends for another 3 years at which time my early retirement incentive stipend will stop.