The Highest Yielding Buffett & Soros StocksBy James Altucher
Stockpickr.com
I like to invest in stocks that are both owned by great investors and that pay great dividends. When you buy a stock that's owned by a great investor you can have a high degree of confidence that he or she did a lot of research before entering the position. Chances are that their research and knowledge is superior to your own.
Dividends are well worth seeking out because you get paid while you wait for your stock to appreciate. And companies usually only initiate or increase dividends if they are very confident that cash flows will continue to increase or at least stabilize. No company wants to cut their dividends. Buybacks and special dividends are shareholder friendly but are usually just one-time events.
At Stockpickr, I keep track of the highest yielding stocks owned by both Warren Buffett and George Soros. To see the full list, see the links to the right. Buffett and Soros are quite possibly the two greatest investors ever. To then follow them into the highest yielding stocks they own, one can put together a solid and diversified high-yielding portfolio.
At the top of Buffett's list is US Bancorp, (USB), which generates a generous 4.6% yield. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 13 and a P/E to earnings growth ratio of 1.5. USB is also my favorite bank for a slowing economy. In a slowing economy, a typical bank has two significant challenges:
* The difference between the yields a bank makes from its investments as opposed to the money it gives to its customers in interest, starts to narrow. This affects a bank's profit margins.
* Borrowers are more likely to default on loans.
USB is exposed to the first issue but seems to be one of the few banks that do not have the second one. In fact, despite the subprime implosion over the past six months, credit quality has actually increased at USB due to the conservative bias of its credit lending.
SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI) is another high-yield Buffett pick. The stock offers a yield of 3.4%, raising its dividend this year to 73 cents per share, up from 61 cents. The P/E is 15.5 and the PEG is 1.9.
SunTrust has also been featured in our High Insider Purchases portfolio (se the link to the right) because the CEO bought several million dollars worth of stock and the company announced that it would start buying back stock using proceeds from its sale of Coca-Cola shares.
PetroChina Co. Ltd. (PTR), a China-based oil and natural gas company, is another high-yield Buffett play. The dividend, paid twice a year, yields 2.6%. The P/E is 12.5 and the PEG is a low 0.81. PetroChina also represents a great way to play the growth in China.
George Soros takes a very macro view of investing, looking for broad, international demographic trends, and investing in the best spots to take advantage of those trends. Following Soros's picks allows one to inject commodity as well as international exposure into a diversified portfolio.
Soros's highest yielding stock is Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY), the timber, lumber, wood products, and paper company. It is generating a yield of 3%. It has a P/E of 11 and a PEG of 6.4. Not only do you get yield, but it's a great inflation hedge and bet on the rising prices of timber and wood products.
Cemex (CX), the Mexico-based cement company, is another Soros holding. Though it pays a dividend just once a year, it has consistently paid the dividend every May for the last eight years, and has raised it each year since 2004. The yield is 1.9%, the P/E is 36, and the PEG is 4.6
Brazil-based mining company, Rio Tinto (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce) (RIO), is another Soros stock. It offers a 1.5% yield and has paid dividends at least twice a year since 2002. It carries a P/E of 15.5 though it has a high PEG of 17.8.
Discuss Buffet and Soros stocks in our forum -
Strategy Central Board.
James Altucher is founder and CEO of Stockpickr.com, author of the book "Trade Like Warren Buffett" and partner at Formula Capital.
