Dividend Dreams

This fund has an obvious focus on the Utility sector. It has 35 stock holdings with exposure to both regulated and unregulated markets. It also has more volume, lower fees, higher yield and far more in assets than a similar fund from Vanguard (VPU). While everything has a risk, utilities have long been considered a nice defensive sector to hold in down times. They can also make for a nice, stable holding in less crazy times as well. Here are some of the stats:

Yield: 4%+ paid quarterly
Fees:  0.21%
Holdings: Exelon, Southern Company, Dominion Resources, FPL Group, Duke Energy, PG&E

StoneMor Partners is an owner and operator of cemeteries and funeral homes in the United States, with 235 cemeteries and 59 funeral homes in 27 states and Puerto Rico. StoneMor is the only publicly traded deathcare company structured as a partnership.

This is one of the few individual small-cap stocks that I own. They are in a business that isn’t going away anytime soon.  Despite medical advances the world death rate remains at 100% and is holding steady.

They were recently named One of America’s 100 Fastest Growing Small Public Companies by Fortune Small Business magazine. You can read about it here.

They have had consistent quarterly dividends above 10% were a welcome addition to my portfolio about two years ago. I like to add to my position when the stock price dips. Limit orders are the way to go.

This Closed-End Fund is one of my favorites. It is one of three funds offered by Alpine. It is basically a basket of stocks containing companies related to real estate owners, developers and investors. It offers both U.S. and Non-U.S. coverage and is not leveraged  more than 5%.

Dividends are monthly and come only from earned income, not return of capital. This is very important and separates this fund from many others. They reduced the dividend a while back, but the yield is still over 5.5%. I think the new dividend is safe and should rise when the economy recovers. Any income not paid out during the year is dispersed at year-end.

Despite recent gains it is still trading at quite a discount to NAV. If you have any belief that the real estate market will recover I think this is a great fund and a good time to  jump in. Alpine management has been buying shares and insider buying can be a good indicator of their faith in the fund.