Warren Buffett’s investing wisdom from decades of shareholder letters — key tips that still work today

Story by Niloy Chakrabarti

Warren Buffett’s Best Investing Tips ©Flickr/Creative Commons© IBTimes

Warren Buffett still goes to office every day and influences trades at Berkshire Hathaway despite stepping down from the helm late last year.

Over the past six decades of managing Berkshire and navigating the most complex events of the 20th century while delivering strong long-term returns, Buffett has consistently shared his investing philosophy, learnings, and mistakes through Berkshire’s annual shareholders letters.

Despite markets and industries evolving rapidly in recent years with the introduction of AI, Buffett’s evergreen investment advice still remains relevant in today’s dynamic economy

Buffett on How to Think About Investing

In the 1996 Berkshire shareholders letter, Buffett had stated that intelligent investing is not ‘complex,’ but it is far from easy. He said one does not need to understand modern portfolio theory or option pricing, but needs to invest in an ‘easily understandable’ business whose earnings have a high probability of growing over the next decade or two.

‘If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes,’ Buffett said in one of his letters.

Looking at companies as private businesses to evaluate their economic prospects, leadership, competitive edge, and the cost of investment is more essential than focusing on recent stock performance

‘We are willing to hold a stock indefinitely so long as we expect the business to increase in intrinsic value at a satisfactory rate,’ Buffett noted in one of his shareholder letters. ‘We view ourselves as business analysts—not as market analysts…not even as security analysts.’

Stock Price Is Just Mr. Market’s Mood On A Given Day

In the 1987 shareholder letter, Buffett had described Mr. Market as a metaphor for the stock market’s daily mood swings, which can be driven by emotion rather than fundamentals.

‘Mr. Market is there to serve you, not to guide you,’ Buffett had noted. ‘It is his pocketbook, not his wisdom, that you will find useful.’

Buffett’s mentor, Benjamin Graham, widely regarded as the father of value investing, had pioneered the concept. Buffett learned from Graham at Columbia Business School and later worked under him at his investment firm.

According to Buffett, Mr. Market’s mood can swing from euphoric optimism to extreme pessimism. When overly enthusiastic, Mr. Market may offer to sell shares at inflated prices, driven by the fear that investors will seize profit opportunities and deprive him of gains. Conversely, during downturns, Mr. Market can be despondent, pricing assets at depressed levels out of fear for the future.

Buffett has observed that ‘the more manic depressive his behaviour, the better for you.’

When Mr. Market is euphoric, he overpays for stocks; when depressed, he sells quality assets at bargain prices. The wider the emotional swings, the more opportunities disciplined investors have to buy undervalued assets or sell overvalued ones

In all, Buffett thinks Mr. Market doesn’t mind being ignored because if you don’t like his quotation today, he will be back with a new one tomorrow.

‘Transactions are strictly at your option,’ he had stated.

Value Investing is ‘Redundant’

Buffett believes that value and growth are interconnected instead of two different approach paths. ‘Growth is always a component in the calculation of value,’ he had noted, adding that the term ‘value investing’ is ‘redundant’ while questioning what ‘investing’ is if is not the act of seeking value at least ‘sufficient to justify the amount paid?’

He thinks it is ‘financially fattening’ to pay more for a stock than its calculated value, hoping it can be offloaded soon for a higher price. Value investing involves handpicking stocks with low price-to-book-value and price-to-earnings ratios or a high dividend yield, but these attributes don’t determine if a stock price is justified.

His concept of ‘owner earnings’ could prove to be useful in determining the real value of a business, which focuses on what’s left for the company owner and shareholders after deducting all liabilities and expenses related to running the business.

The owner-earnings equation does not yield the ‘deceptively’ precise figures provided by GAAP, because the average annual expenses for plant and equipment used in operations ‘must be a guess’ and can be difficult to estimate. However, Buffett considers the ‘owner earnings’ figure instead of GAAP data for valuation purposes when buying stocks or entire businesses.

Finding Cheap Stocks Isn’t Enough

Buffett’s value investing principles of buying great businesses at cheap prices is a popular strategy leveraged by investors and hedge funds worldwide.

‘If you buy a stock at a sufficient low price, there will usually be some hiccup in the fortunes of the business that gives you a chance to unload at a decent profit, even though the long-term performance of the business may be terrible. I call this the “cigar butt” approach to investing,’ Buffett noted in Berkshire’s 1989 shareholder letter.

Buffett believes that a cigar butt has one puff left in it and won’t offer much of a smoke, but a ‘bargain purchase’ will make that puff all profit.

He said that this kind of approach to buying businesses is foolish since the initial bargain price will likely not turn out to be such a ‘steal after all.’

‘Never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen,’ Buffett highlighted, referring to his views that problems keep coming up in difficult businesses, and time erodes mediocre businesses that face stiff competition, high inflation, and generate low returns. In contrast, time serves as a compounding force for successful businesses with unique moats.

Buffett had stated his first mistake was buying control of Berkshire Hathaway. Though he knew textile manufacturing was ‘unpromising,’ he still bought into the company because the price looked cheap. Such stock investments proved rewarding in his early years, but he understood the strategy was not ideal by the time Berkshire came along in 1965.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett walks through the exhibit hall as shareholders gather to hear from the billionaire investor at Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., May 4, 2019. Photo: Reuters / SCOTT MORGAN© IBTimes

Trade Less, Diversify When You Don’t Understand

In the 1992 shareholder letter, Buffett said that the less you trade, the more patient you can be, which is the most valuable attribute in investing.

‘Inactivity strikes us as intelligent behaviour,’ he had noted.

In the 1993 letter, Buffett explained that he and Charlie Munger had decided to settle for ‘one good idea a year.’

In the same letter, he said that portfolio diversification is for those who do not understand business economics. These investors should own ‘a large number of equities and space out his purchases,’ which can be done by periodically investing in an index fund.

However, if you understand business economics, ‘diversification makes no sense for you… It is apt simply to hurt your results and increase your risk.’

In all, Buffett detailed in the 2007 shareholder letter that Berkshire looks for businesses it understands that showcase favorable long-term economics, trustworthy management, and a sensible price tag.

‘A truly great business must have an enduring “moat” that protects excellent returns on invested capital,’ he wrote.

Look For Businesses Insulated From Changes

Buffett had noted in his 1996 letter that he and Munger favoured businesses and industries unlikely to experience major change with operational and growth clarity up to two decades into the future. Both also encouraged new ideas, products, and processes.

‘As investors, however, our reaction to a fermenting industry is much like our attitude toward space exploration: We applaud the endeavour but prefer to skip the ride.’ The top example is Coca-Cola.

In 1996, Buffett claimed he looked at the company’s shareholder report from 1896 to find it had already formulated and followed its 100-year growth plan, while the core product had not changed at all.

As he wrote in his 2011 letter: ‘”Buy commodities, sell brands” has long been a formula for business success.’

Disclaimer: Our digital media content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Please conduct your own analysis or seek professional advice before investing. Remember, investments are subject to market risks, and past performance does not guarantee future returns.

2 Different Perspectives

Next up, the Coca-Cola Company (KO), which faces similar problems as GIS. To be fair, Coke is in a better spot because it has plenty of low- (or no-) calorie drinks to push, such as Coke Zero, Dasani bottled water and various coffees and teas. But the shift toward healthier eating is still a headwind.

Meantime, Coke’s lame dividend growth—typically just a penny or two a year—isn’t enough to get our hearts racing, especially with the stock yielding just 2.7%. But despite all that, investors still cling to Coke as a “safety” stock. That’s why they’ve bid its shares well above its sluggish payout growth.

Contrarian Investor

How dividends and compounding have boosted returns

While stock price appreciation is impressive, the real power of Buffett’s Coca-Cola investment lies in dividends and compounding.

Coca-Cola has increased its dividend every year since Buffett’s initial investment. Today, Berkshire Hathaway receives over $700m in annual dividends from its Coca-Cola shares. Given that Buffett originally invested $1.3 billion, this means he is receiving over 50% of his initial investment back in dividends each year – without selling a single share.

The power of dividend reinvestment and compounding has exponentially increased Buffett’s returns. Over time, the combination of dividend growth and share price appreciation has made Coca-Cola one of the most successful long-term holdings in Berkshire Hathaway’s history.

There were some buyers yesterday for some of the above shares.

NESF + 3.48%

BSIF + 0.7%

FSFL + 3.03%

TRIG – 1.19%

UKW + 1.62%

As prices rise the yield falls and the gap to their NAV narrows.

This “Do Nothing” Portfolio Move Pays 8.3% (and Lets Us Sleep at Night)

Michael Foster, Investment Strategist
Updated: April 13, 2026

The ever-evolving situation in the Middle East has left a lot of uncertainty in the air. But in unpredictable times like these, the best move is often simply this: stay the course.

Investors in high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) know this. Our favorite income plays throw off dividends averaging 9%. That means we can sit back, wait out volatility and get paid handsomely as we do.

And some CEFs, like our long-time CEF Insider portfolio holding the Adams Diversified Equity Fund (ADX), go one further: ADX kicks out an 8.3% dividend as I write this. And it does this while outperforming the S&P 500 over the long haul.

8.3% Dividends and Index-Busting Performance. ADX Has Both

That makes ADX a rare bird indeed. As you can see above, the fund has beaten the S&P 500 in the last 33 years, with every $1 invested now worth $30.90 for ADX versus $27.14 for the benchmark State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY). (Thirty-three years is our timeline because that’s how long SPY has been around.)

It’s a testament to the power of the old Wall Street adage that “the trend is your friend”—especially when you consider that ADX holds many of the same stocks SPY does, NVIDIA (NVDA), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Meta Platforms (META) among them.

ADX is itself an example of the wisdom of taking the long view: It’s been around since 1929 and has tapped that long institutional memory to drive those outsized returns. Its shareholders have consistently received a high-single-digit dividend while they’ve owned the fund.

This is why ADX was one of the first funds we added to the CEF Insider portfolio in July 2017, just a few months after launching the service.

Even investors who simply held SPY have done well in the long haul (even though we much prefer ADX and its 8.3% dividend over SPY’s microscopic 1.1% payout)

Over the 33 years since SPY’s launch, the ETF has returned 10.4% yearly, on average. The interesting thing is, even with the index’s meager yield, reinvesting payouts makes a big difference over a timeframe like that. An investor who withdrew their dividends would’ve brought in just 8.5% annualized.

When Trend-Following Fails

I bring all of this up now because anyone buying stocks or CEFs these days might not feel like the trend is all that friendly. The market has, after all, fallen in 2026, while being whipsawed by up-and-down headlines out of the Middle East.

But it’s important not to succumb to short-term worry, because the best move in times of crisis is often to buy. Or if you’re not comfortable doing that, then, as I said off the top, doing nothing is a strong play, too.

Last Year’s Paranoia Was Worse …

We need only to look back a year to see the wisdom here. At this time last year, stocks were deep into a correction and flirting with a bear market.

Back then, the panic was mostly driven by President Trump’s tariff announcement. That situation, of course, isn’t like today’s problems in the Middle East, but the uncertainty it’s caused feels similar.

… Then This Happened

But as you can see above, anyone who ignored the fear and focused on the long term did very well.

The bottom line? Wall Street’s adage should be adapted to read: “The long-term trend is your friend!” And note that diversification is the key to making the long-term trend your friend, since leaning too hard on one sector often leads to underperformance.

To see what I’m getting at, consider oil, where, yes, there is a CEF play: the Adams Natural Resources Fund (PEO), a well-managed fund that yields 7.3%.

As I write this, PEO is outrunning the S&P 500, as you’d expect in a year heavy with Middle East turmoil. But this is a good example of a place where we don’t want to chase a trend. In last year’s selloff, for example, PEO didn’t fall as far as the market, and it bounced back from that episode faster than stocks in general.

But by the end of the year, PEO had underperformed the market by nearly half!

Oil—and PEO—Are Not Places to Blindly Follow the Long-Term Trend

And indeed, while oil investments like PEO can outperform in the short term and do tend to rise over time, they lag the market in the long haul—with more volatility, too.

Long-Term Thinking Falls Short With Oil

This brings us back to ADX, whose discount to NAV, currently 3.6%, is headed toward premium territory.

ADX’s Discount Moves Toward Par (and Likely Beyond)

This is often a good time to buy—when a CEF remains discounted, but that discount has settled into a narrowing trend. Right now, the fund trades right around my buy-up-to price of $23. My suggestion? Put it on your list to snap up on any major moves below that level.

Sell Into Strength? Absolutely. 2 Dividends to Sell Now (and 2 to Buy)

Brett Owens, Chief Investment Strategist
Updated: April 14, 2026

This market bounce is giving us a rare window to sell our laggards—and snap up stocks that have been unfairly left behind.

When we dump losers, we want do it into strength. And on the flipside, bounces like this often leave strong bargains in their wake.

Let’s start our “rebound rotation” with two blue-chip laggards lots of people own. Then we’ll pivot to two holdings of my Hidden Yields service that are smart, contrarian places to put cash now.

GIS Is a Prime GLP-1 Target

General Mills (GIS) draws a lot of revenue from snacks people eat routinely (and often without thinking much about it), like Bugles, Dunkaroo cookies and high-sugar cereals like Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cookie Crisp.

Unfortunately, those products put the company in the tracks of rising GLP-1 use; these drugs suppress appetites for just these kinds of products. Everyone knows more people are taking these drugs, but when you look more closely, the numbers are stunning.

On April 8, for example, Morgan Stanley Research released a new forecast stating that 55 million Americans will be on GLP-1s by 2035, up from its original forecast of 35 million. This is no fad—it’s a permanent shift in food consumption.

General Mills is pivoting in response, including adding premium snacks (which consumers, including GLP-1 users, will likely keep buying—see my take on Hershey below) and smaller packages aimed at dieters. But it’s far from clear that these moves will be enough.

Meantime, GIS is the definition of a yield trap, with a 6.7% dividend. Too bad that payout has consumed a high 80%—and rising—of the company’s free cash flow in the last year.

Rising Payout Squeezes GIS’s Dividend

Plenty of investors see GIS as a “safe” stock because its products are considered essential, but that idea just doesn’t hold up: Over the last 10 years, the stock has returned negative 18%, while the S&P 500 has soared nearly 300%:

“Safe” Stock? No Way

Don’t buy the turnaround story here. GIS has a long way to go before it delivers positive returns. And if history is any indication, the stock may never get there—especially with the speed at which the healthier-eating trend is moving.

Coke Looks Like “Dead Money” (at Best) in 2026

Next up, the Coca-Cola Company (KO), which faces similar problems as GIS. To be fair, Coke is in a better spot because it has plenty of low- (or no-) calorie drinks to push, such as Coke Zero, Dasani bottled water and various coffees and teas. But the shift toward healthier eating is still a headwind.

Meantime, Coke’s lame dividend growth—typically just a penny or two a year—isn’t enough to get our hearts racing, especially with the stock yielding just 2.7%. But despite all that, investors still cling to Coke as a “safety” stock. That’s why they’ve bid its shares well above its sluggish payout growth.

KO Gets Out Over Its Skis

If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know I preach the power of buying fast-growing dividends, because they pull the stock up with them—a phenomenon I call the Dividend Magnet. But the magnet can work both ways, pulling down a stock that’s gotten too far ahead. That’s the risk here.

With that said, let’s pivot to two “essentials” stocks I recommend now, starting with another food maker investors regularly (especially these days) get the wrong idea about.

Hershey: A Contrarian Play On Healthier Eating

I’m talking about the Hershey Co. (HSY). I know: You’re wondering how I could recommend a maker of chocolates given what we’ve just discussed. Hear me out.

For one, there’s evidence that GLP-1s are less of a problem for chocolate makers. New research from Lindt & Sprüngli, for example, found that among GLP-1 users, sales of chocolate actually rose nearly 17% in 2025. The findings were based on an internal study of the company’s sales by market-research firm Circana.

Wait, what?

When you think about it, it makes sense, because it suggests these folks are ditching “repetitive” snacks like chips, salted peanuts and the like for small indulgences, like chocolate. This rhymes with why we like Hershey in the first place: People are likely to keep buying small treats, even in a slow (and inflation-weary) economy.

That’s backed up by Hershey’s sales growth, which is ticking right along, rising 4.4% in 2025 and forecast to grow 4% to 5% this year.

Meantime, Hershey expects strong earnings growth as it recovers from a cocoa-price spike in 2024. That’s breathing new life into the dividend, which was hiked 6% last year after holding flat for a short time. That, in turn, adds more “pull” on the stock, which is trailing its payout as we speak:

HSY’s Dividend Magnet Is Tuned

Hidden Yields members who bought HSY on my February 2025 buy call are up 24.7% as I write this. But it’s not too late. Thanks to the above “dividend lag,” more growth is on the table here.

Beyond Food: Visa Is Our Favorite “Tollbooth”

Not many people see Visa (V) as an “essentials” stock, but it is.

Visa controls a large slice of the global payments network, collecting a “toll” on every purchase—from the discretionary to the necessary—that rolls through it.

Management isn’t just sitting back, though: It’s looking ahead, making sure it doesn’t get left behind in digital currency, particularly the rising use of “stablecoins.” These digital “coins” are far from the crypto wild west we’ve heard about these last couple of years; they’re tied one-for-one to the US dollar. Their main use these days is for cross-border transactions, as they can be processed without being converted to local currency. Visa already allows stablecoin settlement on its network.

Meantime, in the here and now, US consumer spending continues to hold up, rising 0.5% in February, ahead of its 0.3% rise in January.

Even so, Visa has pulled back 11.7% this year—a clear mismatch for a company that saw revenue and adjusted EPS each jump 15% in its fiscal 2026 first quarter. That’s opened a wide gap—and another buy window—between Visa’s dividend and its share price:

Visa Is Unloved—in More Ways Than One

Visa yields just 0.7% today, but don’t let that put you off—with the 379% payout growth you see above, it would be paying 3.4% on a buy made 10 years ago. That’s nearly 5X the current yield and is in addition to the 294% price gain.

As you can also see, buyers have profited off every dip in the chart above. There’s no reason for this time to be any different.

That last point, in fact, nicely sums up our strategy: Sell laggards into strength, then buy strong stocks the market has left behind. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with these four tickers.

These 5 “Dividend Magnet” Plays Could Be Our Next 148% Winners

When it comes to the Dividend Magnet, we want to buy at the point where the stock has fallen way behind its dividend growth.

That way, when it snaps back, we get maximum upside. That pattern is obvious in the cases of Hershey and Visa.

Nothing in Contrarian Outlook is intended to be investment advice, nor does it represent the opinion of, counsel from, or recommendations by BNK Invest Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or partners. None of the information contained herein constitutes a recommendation that any particular security, portfolio, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. All viewers agree that under no circumstances will BNK Invest, Inc,. its subsidiaries, partners, officers, employees, affiliates, or agents be held liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on any information.

Published on April 10, 2026

by Val Cipriani

New feature

The new tax year is upon us, meaning many investors will have a lump sum to add to their stocks-and-shares Isas – at what is a scary time to go about allocating capital. Recent levels of uncertainty would give pause even to the most veteran of investors.

As a general principle, the right thing to do is stay the course. Review your strategy and portfolio, and as long as they are still right for your goals and time horizon, it’s business as usual. If you are feeling worried about investing a lump sum in one go, you can always drip-feed the money into the market over a few weeks or months.

Still, you might be pondering which types of equity funds are likely to fare best over the next few months if the Middle East ceasefire doesn’t hold, or if volatility returns in another form.

Investors’ Chronicle

A quality resurgence

The theory goes that the most defensive equity sectors comprise companies selling essential goods and services. Broadly, this applies to the likes of consumer staples, healthcare and utilities.

In reality it’s a little more complicated. For example, within healthcare, there are also a number of growth-focused biotech companies that are actually quite racy, while the big pharmaceutical companies make up the more defensive side of the sector. But the idea is that defensive companies’ earnings should prove resilient even during an economic downturn.

Looking for global equity funds with above-average exposure to these sectors will usually lead you to managers deploying a ‘quality’ strategy. The most famous example, Terry Smith’s Fundsmith Equity (GB00B41YBW71), currently has more than half of its portfolio between healthcare and consumer staples, with Unilever (ULVR) as one of its top holdings.

Quality as a style does have a defensive tilt, at least in theory, given it looks for resilient, cash-generative companies with solid balance sheets. But the style has been out of fashion in the past few years and these funds have actually underperformed quite severely, especially in the UK and Europe.

This is partly because valuations had grown pretty demanding, and partly due to sector-specific or company-specific issues, such as the struggles seen at weight-loss drug provider Novo Nordisk (DK:NOVO.B). Arguably, it is also partly because, despite the various geopolitical crises of the past few years, markets remained fairly ‘risk on’ throughout, never really going into defensive mode for prolonged periods of time.

If the war in Iran continues, leading to higher inflation and economic stagnation, will that give quality companies a fresh boost? It could, but with interest rates likely to stay higher for longer, valuations remain a crucial consideration.

As at the end of 2025, Morningstar estimates that Fundsmith’s portfolio was still trading on a price/earnings (PE) ratio of 24. This will be lower now – the fund has shed about a tenth of its value year to date – but is still not exactly cheap. Some quality companies are starting to look less pricey, however. Unilever, for instance, was trading on a multiple of about 16 at the time of writing, although again this is partly for stock-specific reasons: investors are worried about how energy shocks will affect both its costs and its emerging market customers, and unsure about the planned spin-off of its food business.

The chart below shows how, with value stocks outperforming and quality struggling, the valuation gap between some high-profile value and quality funds is closing somewhat.

Still, a focus on valuations should continue to favour value companies overall. These have been outperforming over the past couple of years, particularly in Europe and the UK. Typical ‘value’ territory usually means a PE ratio no higher than the low teens.

Rob Morgan, chief investment analyst at Charles Stanley, argues: “Regions, sectors and styles that are priced for perfection are more vulnerable, while areas trading on reasonable multiples with solid cash generation offer a better margin of safety. This rewards patience in unloved but fundamentally sound areas.”

Jason Hollands, managing director of Bestinvest, thinks we are entering a period of ‘warflation’ rather than stagflation for the US economy – a temporary rather than permanent energy supply shock, which may not seriously impact the economy or companies, whose earnings expectations and balance sheets still look reasonably resilient. “That said, risks are building: higher energy costs, tighter financial conditions and rising bond yields all increase the probability of slower growth and potential earnings downgrades if the situation persists,” he adds.

Assuming a period of higher energy prices and lower global growth, “the balance of probabilities would favour more value-oriented investment strategies”, he says.

The funds to buy

Experts emphasise the importance of diversification in the current environment. The war could end this month or persist for some time longer yet, so we just don’t know what is going to work. Blending different styles and asset classes is a good starting point.

If you do want to give quality a go but look beyond the usual suspects of Terry Smith and Nick Train, Ben Yearsley, investment director at Fairview Investing, suggests Trojan Global Income (GB00BD82KP33). The fund invests in quality companies “purchased at attractive valuations and held for the long term”. As at the end of February, a third of the fund was in consumer staples, and another 11 per cent in healthcare. It was fairly concentrated, with just 32 stocks, and the top holdings were American derivatives exchange company CME Group (US:CME) and British American Tobacco (BATS).

For value, Hollands suggests the Xtrackers MSCI World Value ETF (XDEV), Murray International (MYI) and Ranmore Global Equity (IE00B61ZVB30). The latter was recently profiled on the IC (‘My favourite holding period is a day’). First, keep in mind that even with trackers, you do still need to take a look at what’s inside; this one still has significant exposure to the US, even if this weighting is less than the broad stock market (42 per cent).

This exposure may not be the worst thing in the world considering value stocks in the US have not rallied as enthusiastically as their European counterparts in the past year or so. Still, the ETF also has a lot in the tech sector (28 per cent), and its biggest holding is semiconductor company Micron Technologies (US:MU), whose share price has increased more than fivefold in the past year.

Meanwhile, Morgan argues for a combination of value and growth strategies. “Higher interest rates raise the cost of capital, so companies with low debt, strong free cash flow, and resilience across the cycle are likely to outperform the highly leveraged, except in the cases of very strong structural growth stories where the debt load melts away,” he says. “It’s therefore a bit of a ‘barbell’ situation for investors.”

He favours a “core of resilient compounders”, provided by value-tilted funds with a focus on earnings growth such as M&G Global Dividend (GB00B39R2Q25) and Artemis Global Income (GB00B5ZX1M70), combined with “a collection of unique growth situations”, such as the companies targeted by Scottish Mortgage (SMT).

For defensive exposure, you could also consider a sector-specific fund, although of course this is a more targeted option, not a core global equity holding. Yearsley suggests taking a look at the listed infrastructure sector, where his fund of choice is First Sentier Global Listed Infrastructure (GB00B24HJL45); Morgan likes FTF ClearBridge Global Infrastructure Income (GB00BMF7D662).

jalalive crystalhillglasses.comx 3534@capitalgadgets.com 156.241.137.2

This is now one of my favorite blog posts on this subject.

Thursday 16 April

Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon PLC ex-dividend date
BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date
JPMorgan American Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date
JPMorgan Asia Growth & Income PLC ex-dividend date
JPMorgan European Growth & Income PLC ex-dividend date
Merchants Trust PLC ex-dividend date
Montanaro UK Smaller Cos Investment Trust PLC ex-dividend date
Unite Group PLC ex-dividend date

Dividend Investing, High-Yield Investing, High-Yield Investments

April 11, 2026 by Dividend Report Staff

Some of the dividend stocks below are the best dividend stocks while others require more research.

Ticker	Ex-Div Date	Pay Date	Amount	Yield
MVO	4/15/2026	4/24/2026	$0.17	29.96%
OXSQ	4/16/2026	4/30/2026	$0.04	23.08%
SPMC	4/15/2026	4/30/2026	$0.20	20.80%
BCAT	4/15/2026	4/30/2026	$0.26	20.41%
OXLC	4/16/2026	4/30/2026	$0.20	19.80%
GGT	4/16/2026	4/23/2026	$0.07	19.56%
PDCC	4/16/2026	4/30/2026	$0.22	19.00%
OCCI	4/15/2026	4/30/2026	$0.05	18.93%
ARR	4/15/2026	4/29/2026	$0.24	17.57%
HRZN	4/16/2026	5/15/2026	$0.06	15.38%

Data current as of 4/10/26

Data presented in this table is for information purposes. Other than for those equities included in the portfolios of Investors Alley subscription services no analysis is provided on any equities mentioned in this table, nor is any endorsement to any equity in this table to be inferred or implied because of that equity’s inclusion.

The Best 13% Yield Opportunity in Today’s Market

April 13, 2026  by Tim Plaehn

Private credit investments are pools of non-publicly traded loans to corporations, in which investors invest and participate in the earnings of a private credit portfolio. These investments are sold through investment advisors who like offering investments that their clients cannot source on their own.

In recent months, a fear has gripped investors about the possibility of massive defaults on loans in private credit portfolios. The private credit investments, by contract, limit the amount an investor can withdraw each quarter.

Fears about potential private credit problems have pushed investors into these products to request withdrawals well above the contract limits. With the news, fear grows, and the share prices of the companies that provide private credit investments have been hammered. For example, Blue Owl Capital Inc. (OWL) is down 43% year to date, and KKR 7 Co. (KKR) is off 28%.

Private credit market fears have spread to stocks that are not directly connected to or affected by any potential problems with the types of investments offered by the likes of OWL and KKR.

Publicly traded business development companies (BDCs) also make loans to corporations. BDC client companies are smaller than the typical private credit borrower, and they become deeply involved in the business operations of the companies they finance.  The businesses and profits of quality BDCs will be fine. However, fears about private lending have also driven BDC share prices down.

With that in mind, I want to highlight Hercules Capital Corp (HTGC), a $2.7 billion market cap BDC.

HTGC is down 20% this year, pushing its regular dividend yield to more than 10%. And, the company has declared quarterly supplemental dividends, pushing the total yield to almost 13%.

On April 6, Hercules issued a press release announcing that, for the first quarter, the company had all-time-high commitments for new debt and equity investments. It continued :

“In the three months ended March 31, 2026, Hercules originated $1.81 billion of new debt and equity commitments to 16 new and 12 existing portfolio companies.”

Hercules Capital is a BDC of the highest quality. The company has provided great returns to investors for almost 20 years. Private credit fears have put HTGC shares “on sale,” and buying some now will make you a very happy investor a year or two down the road.