Thanks to surging stock prices over the past two years, dividend yields on major stock indices have fallen to fairly low levels. The S&P 500, for instance, currently carries an average yield of just 1.3%.
The mature companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average fare a bit better, and some of them offer yields that exceed the S&P 500 several times over.
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) has been one of the undisputed victors in the AI boom and has defined the stock market for the past two years.
In the last 12 months alone, PLTR shares are up more than 350% on the back of rapid growth in the commercial business and tremendous investor enthusiasm for AI applications in the corporate world.
2024 was another banner year for the US stock market, with the S&P 500 notching a gain of 23%. Dwarfing even this return, though, was that of the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF), which has delivered a 29.7% return over the last 12 months.
There is lots of speculation that the new President will be supportive of the financial sector so can XLF beat the market again in 2025,
Carlos Slim made a splash in a surprising sector last year, choosing to bet big on oil production and refining businesses.
Throughout 2024, the (in)famous investor deployed about $1 billion into the oil market, including a little over $600 million in US refining company PBF Energy (NYSE:PBF).
Why is it about this relatively obscure energy name that has attracted Carlos Slim,
» Read more about: Has Latin Billionaire Spotted Screaming Buy »
Costco’s stock price has experienced enormous growth over the last few years. At the beginning of 2020, you could purchase a share for a little less than $300. Today, shares trade for closer to $1,000.
Not surprisingly, this growth has encouraged a lot of analysts to speculate about when Costco will split its shares.
» Read more about: Will Costco Finally Split Its Sky High Stock? »
In a pre-holiday surprise announcement, management at FedEx (NYSE:FDX) released news of a plan to spin off FedEx Freight into a standalone entity that also would be publicly traded.
Given the headwinds the firm has faced from pricing to cost-sensitive customers, the spinoff offers a potential boon to existing shareholders. FedEx Freight handles less-than-truckload shipping for the company,
» Read more about: Will This Spinoff Unlock Massive Wealth? »
Warren Buffett has spent 2024 stockpiling cash, even going so far as to sell off sizeable pieces of some of his largest investments. Recently, though, Berkshire Hathaway announced that it had made some modest acquisitions, including the addition of nearly 388,000 shares of domain name registry service Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN).
These purchases brought Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings in Verisign to 13.2 million shares,
If you want to invest in an AI-leading tech company, NVIDIA and Broadcom likely stand out as strong options. But what if you could only choose one company? Would you bet your investment dollars on NVIDIA or Broadcom? It’s no big surprise that the answer depends on what you expect to get in return for your investment.
» Read more about: Broadcom’s Dividends or NVIDIA’s Growth: What Should Investors Choose? »
Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) is a fledgling pharmaceutical company that specializes in the use of immune therapies for cancer treatment. Specifically, Iovance is exploring new applications of tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, utilizing cells that the human body naturally produces to attack cancerous tumors.
There was lots of hype about this next-generation cancer treatment company but its share price has been decidedly lackluster this year,
» Read more about: Massive Upside In Big Money Pharma Favorite? »
Earlier this year, billionaire investor and political donor George Soros drew a great deal of attention for suddenly acquiring about 200 radio stations in 40 national market from Audacy, a legacy broadcasting network.
Unsurprisingly, Soros faced both regulatory hurdles and political backlash for buying up so many broadcast stations at once.
Why is George Soros buying radio stations,
» Read more about: Why On Earth Is Soros Buying Radio Stations? »
