Dear Mr. Berko: My wife and I have been reading your column for over 35 years, and we’ve made some good stock purchases from your recommendations. We have a $235,000 certificate of deposit that will come due soon and want to put $100,000 in a portfolio of stocks that will pay at least 6 percent, if possible. Even though we are in our mid-70s, we can afford some moderate risks. I still do some accounting and consulting work part time, and my wife sells a few short stories every year. Here’s a list of eight stocks our broker gave us. From my perspective, it looks pretty good. But my wife and I would appreciate your opinions on these stocks or any suggestions you might add to this enclosed list.
— S.S., Durham, N.C.
Dear S.S.: Very interesting! I received an email last week from someone asking me to recommend “eight conservative stocks paying over 6 percent for a couple in their 70s.” Your stockbroker is a weasel. He asked me for this list and then shared my recommendations with you under his signature. Hmm! So, invest $12,000 in each issue. This portfolio will yield 6.6 percent and should give you modest dividend and principal growth.
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD-$24.89) is a master limited partnership providing midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, petrochemicals and refined products in North America. Distributions have increased annually since 2009, and the current $1.69 distribution yields 6.7 percent. Argus Research, Standard & Poor’s and Thomson Reuters recommend EPD.
The Blackstone Group (BX-$32) is an alternative global asset manager (about $405 billion) for hedge funds, private-equity groups and real estate interests and provides and participates in leveraged financing. Thomson Reuters, Argus Research and Credit Suisse have “outperform” rankings on BX. The $1.76 dividend, yielding 5.4 percent, was raised from $1.56 last year. Good growth in revenues, earnings and dividends is expected for the coming few years.
