SOURCE: FLICKR USER SIMON CUNNINGHAM
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ +0.72%) is a dividend aristocrat with a seemingly bulletproof business model, but its 2.88% dividend yield may not be all that compelling to income investors, and as a result, some may be hunting for alternatives.
Although a high yield may provide more income in the short-term, it could also indicate a low-quality business that's too risky to keep in your portfolio. Therefore, we asked three of the Motley Fool's top contributors to highlight a few high-quality investment ideas with better-than-J&J yields to consider for portfolios. Read on to learn which three companies they picked and why.
Todd Campbell: Investors who seek out higher yields typically take on more risk. If that's OK with you, then you might want to consider taking a stab at AbbVie (ABBV +1.76%).
The company's 4.34% dividend yield is among the best out there, and concerns about risks to its top line stemming from the looming expiration of one of Humira's patents may be overblown.
Humira represents a whopping 60% of AbbVie's sales, and its composition of matter patent expires this year, but other patents could protect the drug from competition in the U.S. until 2022. That has management guiding for Humira sales to increase to $18 billion in 2020 from $14 billion today.
That's an eye-popping prediction given the risk to Humira, but AbbVie's total sales forecast for 2020 may be even more surprising. Management thinks its sales will grow from its current $24 billion annualized quarterly clip to $37 billion that year.
If management delivers on that goal, then there should be plenty of financial flexibility to support dividend and potentially, plenty of reason for investors to send AbbVie's shares higher. Only time will tell if AbbVie can sidestep competitors, but investors with a bit higher tolerance for risk might want to consider it.
Andres Cardenal: IBM (IBM +0.37%) is going through considerable challenges lately, global corporate spending remains lackluster, and currency headwinds are inflicting damage on the company's performance. IBM is also moving away from its hardware-related businesses and segments with low profit margins, which is putting additional pressure on sales.
In this context, IBM reported a 9% decline in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2015. The revenue decline in constant-currency terms was a much more moderate 2%, but still nothing to write home about. Not everything is bad news, though: IBM is now making 35% of total sales from its "strategic imperatives" group of high-growth businesses, and revenue from these segments jumped by a vigorous 26% in constant-currency terms last quarter.
It's hard to tell how long it may take for IBM to jump-start its sales growth, but its strategic imperative businesses, which include cloud computing, data analytics, mobile, social, and security, will most-probably represent a growing share of total revenue over time, and this bodes well for investors in IBM over the long term.
IBM has an amazing track record of making dividend payments through good and bad times. The company has paid uninterrupted dividends since 1916, and it has increased dividends annually for the last 20 years. At current prices, IBM stock is paying a big dividend yield of 4.3%, and this looks like a remarkably attractive valuation for such a strong dividend powerhouse.
Tyler Crowe: With the energy sector on such a vicious decline over the past couple of years, you could almost throw a dart at a list of energy companies and hit a company with a larger dividend yield than Johnson & Johnson. What matters, though, is finding a dividend that actually has a shot of making it through this energy downturn without being cut. With that in mind, one company yield-hungry investors should consider is Magellan Midstream Partners (MMP +0.00%).
Most oil and gas pipeline companies have a majority of their assets involved in moving crude oil, natural gas, or natural gas liquids. By contrast, a majority of Magellan's pipeline assets transport refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel. Since gasoline and diesel demand is pretty inelastic, Magellan's pipelines are much less likely to run into the issue of seeing volume declines during this downturn. To add to this security, more than 85% of its gross profits come from fixed fees. These two elements translated to a company that actually increased its cash flow in 2015 -- and when it comes to pipeline companies, cash is king.
There is a flip side to this. The same factors that have protected it from the oil price downturn means that investors shouldn't expect a huge jump when the energy market rebounds. However, if you are looking for a high-yield investment -- Magellan now yields 4.9% -- that grows at a decent clip year in, year out, then it's probably worth taking a look at this stock.
