Investors hunting for yield can look beyond the Treasury market.
With the 10-year bond yield hovering at 2.1%, about 230 stocks or nearly half of the S&P 500 now offers the same or better.
One of those high-yield stocks could be about to break out, says Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak.
“If you want to take a chance and take a little bit more risk, I would actually look at a stock like Wells Fargo,” Maley said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation. ” “I’ve been cautious on the banks because interest rates remain low and will stay that way for a while. However, Wells Fargo, if you look at it since early 2016, it’s underperformed the KBE bank ETF because it’s had its own reasons, it’s not just interest rates that have knocked the stock down. “
Wells Fargo has been beaten down over the past three years after the discovery it had fraudulently created client accounts, allegedly to drum up sales numbers. The bank paid a series of fines, including a $1 billion penalty to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and high-level executives including then CEO John Stumpf stepped down.
“If they can kind of move past those problems, get through them, the stock could play catch-up even if rates stay a little bit lower,” said Maley.
After a wild three years, Wells Fargo now trades at the same level it did in November 2016. Maley also sees a double bottom that has formed at around $44, first in 2016 and then again last December, that suggests a level of support in Wells Fargo’s charts.
“If it can break out further from here after making that double bottom it can see some nice upside potential,” said Maley. “There’s risk involved. Wells Fargo has got some issues, so you have to have some tight stops, but this one could be a big surprise to the upside if it can break out from here.”
Wells Fargo offers a 3.8% dividend yield, above the 2.3% yield on the KBE bank ETF.
Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors, is more skeptical of high-dividend stocks as a whole.
“I would certainly shy away from high-dividend stocks at this inflection point in the market. We would look rather to rising dividend companies that have consistent growth, consistent topline, consistent profitability and, here’s the critical thing, very low debt,” Morganlander said.
He recommends looking at companies with a yield above 4% and comparing their balance sheets to seek out high-quality, high-yielding companies in which to invest, such as those in consumer staples and health care. Washington Crossing Advisors’ rising dividend portfolio includes staples stocks Church & Dwight and P&G, and health-care stocks Merck and UnitedHealth.
