Second-quarter earnings season is shaping up well for essential-service companies paying high dividends.
As debt ceiling negotiations drag on in Washington, DC, investors seeking cover from the fallout should look no further than the dividend-paying stocks of high-quality essential-service companies.
If the FCC or the DoJ bar the ATT&T-T-Mobile merger, Deutsche Telekom will suffer. And T-Mobile will likely, eventually, fall to another competitor that doesn’t have AT&T’s ability to invest in its network. Wireless consolidation is about building scale.
The best protection against a volatile market is a portfolio full of dividend-paying essential-service stocks.
Dividend investing is about buying and holding solid companies with proven records of growing their payouts.
The bottom line is short sellers won’t undermine the ability of solid companies to build wealth over time.
Dividend-paying MLPs that own vital pipeline, storage and processing assets will continue to grow, even amid a sluggish US macroeconomic context.
Dividend investors have to know what’s going on with state and federal regulators and the essential-service companies they oversee.
Natural gas will be a critical part of the answer to this question. A lot depends upon how state and federal regulators treat “fracking,” which has literally unlocked more than a century’s worth of homegrown fuel.
The macroeconomic picture, including today’s jobs number, remains cloudy. Long-term wealth-building is about buying businesses with the wherewithal to survive any and all circumstances.
