Tim's Corner: This Sector Could Benefit From Rising Rates
What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?" - Thomas Sowell
This instablog post is sponsored by Tim Plaehn, expert on income investing and a friend & colleague of mine at Investors Alley as well as a contributor here on Seeking Alpha. Tim runs the Dividend Hunter newsletter which offers a solid & diverse selection of attractive high yield plays. The service now nearly 10,000 active subscribers and can be had HERE for the rock bottom price of $49 (It usually is $99) for the first year. Tim provides a solid selection of lower beta, high yield recommendations for these challenging times.
You may scoff at the Tooth Fairy if you like. But the Tooth Fairy's approach has gotten more politicians elected than any economist's analysis." - Thomas Sowel
By Tim Plaehn,
With interest rates on the rise, there are worries that the value of high-yield investments will decline. For bonds and bond funds, that is definitely the case—bond prices go down when interest rates go up. Many investors know that truth; however, the rules that apply to one type of income investment are not universal across the high-yield universe. Like any structural change in the investing world, higher interest rates will produce winners and losers.
Financial companies such as banks and other lenders should experience higher profit levels with higher interest rates. Meager rates put a cap on what lenders can charge for all types of loans—except for credit cards, that is!
Business development companies [BDCS] are a special type of finance business. BDCs operate under special laws, with the goal of improving small- to medium-sized corporations’ access to capital. BDC clients cannot get loans from banks and cannot access the public debt markets.
Like real estate investment trusts (REITs), BDCs operate as pass-through entities. This feature means they must pay out at least 90% of net investment income as dividends to investors. Another BDC rule limits the use of leverage to no more than two times equity. The low leverage prevents the BDC universe from being caught in any type of interest rate squeeze.
Most BDCs lend to client companies at variable rates. When interest rates rise, the interest income from a company’s portfolio will increase. With a well-managed portfolio, a BDC should experience rising net investment income as rates increase—for both the loans to clients and the debt that funds the portfolio.
As an example, Ares Capital Corp (ARCC), the largest BDC, recently reported a weighted average yield on its income-producing securities of 9.1%. The net interest paid on debt was 3.4%. Net interest margin came in at 6.5%. In addition, ARCC was leveraged to 1.2 times equity, so the 6.5% spread was earned on about 40% of the portfolio, and the company’s equity made the full 9.1%.
The point to understand is that as rates go up, the interest rate spread and net investment income for a well-run BDC should increase. Since most of the net investment income goes out as dividends, investors will also see dividend growth from the higher quality BDCs.
When researching the different companies in the BDC world, look for internal management (most are externally managed, with higher fees) and a long-term track record of either dividend growth or paying special dividends when profits allow.
Currently, there are three BDCs on my Dividend Hunter recommendations list. I view these as the top picks out of the 50 or so listed on the stock exchanges.
There is nothing that politicians like better than handing out benefits to be paid for by someone else." - Thomas Sowell
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Thank You & Happy Hunting,
Bret Jensen
Founder, The Biotech Forum, The Busted IPO Forum & The Insiders Forum
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