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High Yield REIT Weekly Ex-Dividend Opportunities
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Published Mon, 18 Jun 2012 08:14:16 -0400 on Seeking Alpha
2012 has been quite volatile for the broad stock market and the European situation is further threatening equity investments. With the economic and political climates only becoming more tumultuous I have been concentrating on high yield opportunities to mitigate risk. We all know about the blue-chip dividend companies but there are attractive funds with high yields that are going ex-dividend every week.
This strategy can work in one of two ways: either you buy before the ex-date to receive the dividend or buy after if the stock declines far below the after-tax amount of the dividend. Regardless of your short-term strategies, these funds can be attractive longer-term investments depending on your individual circumstances.
Buying the stock to receive the dividend is intuitive but many have contacted me requesting further details on the second strategy. Investopedia has a great example of how this works. To explain this, I will use AT&T (T) as an example. AT&T declared a $.44 dividend to shareholders of record on April 10, 2012. On the ex-dividend date the stock price should decline by the after-tax dividend amount, with an assumed tax rate of approximately 15% because many dividends qualify for a preferential tax rate. It is true that you can personally avoid immediate taxation by owning the security in an account with beneficial tax treatment but this serves as a benchmark.
As a result, an investor would expect the stock price to decline by $.37 = [$.44 * (1-.15)]. If AT&T declined by more than $.37 in the absence of negative news you might have an attractive opportunity. Executing this strategy can generate returns over short periods of times but should only be performed on companies that you would be comfortable owning.
To focus on these opportunities I ran a screen with a focus on relative safety for the investments. I began with a specification of a dividend yield greater than four percent and an ex-dividend date within the next week. To provide some layer of safety I narrowed down the environment by looking at companies with market capitalizations greater than $1B, P/Es between zero and 20, and institutional holding percentage of at least 15 percent (except ADRs).
While not a precise requirement, I prefer companies that have underperformed the S&P 500 year-to-date as it indicates reduced downside relative to peers. With the impending European crisis I now pay additional attention to a company's geographical dependency and will avoid companies with significant European exposure. This is summarized below:
Dividend Yield ≥ 4.0%
Ex-Dividend Date = Next Week
Market Capitalization ≥ $1B
P/E Ratio: 0-20
Institutional Ownership ≥ 15%
Avoidance of European Exposure
After applying this screen I arrived at the equities discussed below. Although I envision these as short-term trading ideas, you still need to be exercise caution. The information presented below should simply be a starting point for further research in consultation with your professional financial advisor before you make any investment decisions. My goal is to present new companies to you and provide a brief overview of their recent developments and this should not be considered a substitute for your own due diligence.
American Capital Agency Corp. (AGNC): 14.89% Yield - Ex-Dividend 6/19
Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. (IVR): 16.88% Yield - Ex-Dividend 6/22
Two Harbor Investment Corp. (TWO): 15.05% Yield - Ex-Dividend 6/20
CYS Investments Inc. (CYS): 14.11% Yield - Ex-Dividend 6/21... Read moreStock name ISIN Last trade P/E Earnings/Share Dividend/Share Dividend yield AMERICAN CAPITAL AGENCY 
US02503X1054 29.65 12.4 2.38 5.00 16.86 INVESCO MORTGAGE CAPITAL
US46131B1008 20.41 7.3 2.79 2.60 12.74 CYPRESS SHARPRIDGE INV
US23281A3077 11.88 6.0 1.98 1.28 10.77 TWO HARBORS INVESTMENT
US90187B1017 11.92 9.1 1.30 1.28 10.74 PORTLAND GENERAL ELECTRIC
US7365088472 32.33 17.2 1.86 1.08 3.34