Top Net Payout Yields - December 2018

This article is a continuation of a monthly series highlighting the top net payout yield (NPY) stocks that was started back in June 2012 and explained in August 2012. The series highlights the best stocks for the upcoming month, utilized in part to make investment decisions for the IB Asset Management model. Please review the original articles for more information on the NPY concept.
September/October/November Returns
Below are two charts highlighting the monthly returns of the top 10 stocks from September (see list here) since the list wasn't updated the last two months. For presentation reasons, the chart is broken into the Top 5 and Next 5 lists and compared to the S&P 500 benchmark index along with the Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF (NYSEARCA: SYLD), which offers a fund for comparison purposes that is aligned with the NPY concept.
The Top 5 stocks hit a rough stretch over the last three months along with the market. The group had a rather weak period, if not for the large 23.5% gain of Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA). The only other stock to outperform the 4.9% loss of the benchmark S&P 500 index was Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW). The other three stocks of Kroger (NYSE: KR), Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) and Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) each lost more than the benchmark index with the latter two losing nearly 20% on average. The Cambria fund produced a very large 9.8% loss, far in excess of the Top 5 stocks and the benchmark index. In total, the Top 5 stocks... Read more