Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now

In our Q4 Outlook report released last week, we highlighted the fact that while valuations for equities were high, there is case to be made that relative to alternatives, equities were attractively valued. The TINA (There Is No Alternative) argument, as it's called, suggests that even with equities trading at rich valuations, they are attractive compared to yields on fixed income securities which are at or near historic lows. The fact that more than 60% of the stocks in the S&P 500 pay a higher dividend yield than the 10-Year US Treasury illustrates one example of this idea.

The problem with the so-called TINA argument is that when interest rates rise as they have this week, the alternatives can quickly start to look a lot less attractive. A case in point is the Utilities sector. Over the last several days, as the long end of the curve has steepened, high-yielding stocks like Utilities have been under steady selling pressure, and as of yesterday's close the sector finished in the red for the tenth straight trading day.

Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: ConocoPhillips(COP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Goldman Sachs strategist David Kostin and team note that stocks with high operating leverage–Amazon.com (AMZN), Whole Foods Market (WFM), ConocoPhillips (COP), Yahoo! (YHOO), and FedEx (FDX) among them–will outperform if the U.S. economy strengthens:

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  Also, to comound these problems, there isn't a clear leader of the project that can steer its investment deicisions. ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) , Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A  ) , Eni (NYSE: E  ) , Total (NYSE: TOT  ) , and Kazakh national oil company KazMunaiGas each have a�16.81% working interest in the project. This has led to problems involving investment decisions and project mangement.�Both�ExxonMobil�and�Royal Dutch Shell�have been extremely�disappointed�with the results, to the point that they have threatened to pull out of the project altogether on a couple of occasions, and�ConocoPhillips� (NYSE: COP  ) did get out this year by selling its $5 billion stake in the project to China National Petroleum.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  
  Benzinga's newsdesk monitors options activity to notice unusual patterns. These large volume (and often out of the money) trades were initially published intraday in Benzinga Professional . These trades were placed during Monday's regular session.

  Navistar International Corp (NYSE: NAV) Jun16 10.0 Puts Sweep: 902 @ ASK $0.35: 15k traded vs 1749 OI: Earnings Today Before Open $12.22 Ref ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) Fri 6/10 44.5 Puts (Wkly): 2000 @ ASK $0.43: 4051 traded vs 80 OI: $44.87 Ref SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (NYSE: SEAS) Sep16 17.0 Puts Sweep: 683 @ ASK $1.40: 2749 traded vs 313 OI: $16.52 Ref

  Posted-In: put optionsNews Options Markets

• [By Geoffrey Seiler]

  Where ConocoPhillips (COP) remains similar to its former super-major peers is that its portfolio of assets is very diversified, consisting of onshore and offshore positions, along with LNG operations, a presence in the Canadian oil sands, and it operates worldwide.

• [By Wayne Duggan]

  Bernstein maintains Outperform ratings on the following oil stocks:

  Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) Cobalt International Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CIE) Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG) ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) Devon Energy Corp (NYSE: DVN) EOG Resources Inc (NYSE: EOG) Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC) Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE: SWN)

  GMP analyst Bob Bakanauskas went long E&Ps back on February 3. He predicts that the oil market will transition from oversupply to undersupply in 2017. From that point forward, the world will once again require shale production growth.

• [By Chris Lange]

  ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) saw the number of its shares short increase slightly to 17.33 million from the previous level of 17.19 million. Shares closed Wednesday at $45.73, within a 52-week range of $31.05 to $55.61.

Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: Microchip Technology Incorporated(MCHP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Beth Piskora]

  They are listed below:

  Altera (ALTR)��yielding 1.7%
  
  Apple (AAPL)��yielding 2.5%
  
  Applied Materials (AMAT)��yielding 2.6%
  
  Cisco (CSCO)��yielding 2.9%
  
  EMC Corp. (EMC)��yielding 1.5%
  
  International Business Machines (IBM)��yielding 2.0%
  
  KLA-Tencor (KLAC)��yielding 3.2%
  
  Microchip Technology (MCHP)��yielding 3.6%
  
  Oracle (ORCL)��yielding 1.5%
  
  Qualcomm (QCOM)��yielding 2.1%
  
  Texas Instruments (TXN)��yielding 2.9%
  
  Xilinx (XLNX)��yielding 2.3%
  
  

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Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: Nucor Corporation(NUE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Given revised commodity deck forecasts (particularly for Steel and Gold) and improved Balance Sheet health (Steels, Precious and Industrials Metals) we are upgrading our ratings on several stocks in our coverage. We generally favor companies that have already initiated specific ��self-help��, have low-cost assets and are less exposed to China supply and demand dynamics. In Steels, we have increased our rating from Hold to Buy on Nucor (NUE) and from Sell to Hold on US Steel. We have also upgraded Kinross Gold (KGC) to a Hold on valuation…On higher-than-peer valuations, we reiterate Sell-rated Coeur Mining (CDE), Franco-Nevada (FNV), Goldcorp (GG), Teck Resources (TCK) and highly leveraged AK Steel given preference to issue further equity if possible.

• [By Garrett Baldwin]

  Possible names floated have included two businessmen. First, campaign economic adviser and billionaire Wilbur Ross, or top trade adviser Dan DiMicco, the former CEO of steelmaker Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE).

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Then there are the steel plays. United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) was up 7.4% at $27.61 late on Monday. It has a market cap of $4.5 billion. Over the past five trading days the stock has gained 30%. Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) was last seen up 1% at $59.34. Nucor has a total market cap of $18.8 billion. Over the past five�trading days the stock has gained 17%.

• [By Wayne Duggan]

  JPMorgan names United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X), AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE: AKS), Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) and Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) as its top steel stock picks.

Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: Cellcom Israel Ltd.(CEL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Monica Gerson]

  Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE: CEL) is estimated to post its earnings for the latest quarter.

  Quotient Ltd (NASDAQ: QTNT) is projected to post a quarterly loss at $0.59 per share on revenue of $4.75 million.

Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation(RL)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  We looked at the speculation that International Paper (IP) could be a takeover target, and the progress made at Ralph Lauren (RL), and the slowing same-store sales at Shake Shack (SHAK).

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  The 20 stocks meeting those requirements are: Ralph Lauren (RL), Time Warner�(TWX), Twenty-First Century Fox�(FOXA), PepsiCo�(PEP), Estee Lauder�(EL), Tesoro�(TSO), XL�(XL), Ameriprise Financial,�(AMP), Unum�(UNM), Merck�(MRK), AbbVie�(ABBV), Gilead Sciences�(GILD), General Dynamics�(GD), Alaska Air�(ALK), United Continental�(UAL), Delta Air Lines�(DAL), Oracle�(ORCL), eBay�(EBAY), Apple�(AAPL), and Centurylink�(CTL).

• [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]

  The sidewalks outside stores like Armani, Dolce & Gabanna, Ralph Lauren (RL) , Gap (GPS) , Prada, Abercrombie & Fitch (AF) , Microsoft (MSFT) and Harry Winston are now lined with metal barricades. The strip commands some of the highest retail rents in the world, with the average annual rent being $3500 per square foot.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE: RL) reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and retained its fiscal 2017 forecast.

  Ralph Lauren reported Q2 earnings of $1.90 per share on revenue of $1.82 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.71 per share on revenue of $1.8 billion.

Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: ONEOK Inc.(OKE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Citi maintains Buy ratings on Targa Resources (NYSE: TRGP), ONEOK (NYSE: OKE) and Oneok Partners (NYSE: OKS) citing the companies stories around natural gas liquids (NGLs).