Top Net Payout Yields - January 2019

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.
December Returns
Below are two charts highlighting the monthly returns of the top 10 stocks from December (see list here). 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 few months along with the market. The group had a rather weak December with three stocks seeing losses in excess of 11.0%. Even with the benchmark S&P 500 index losing 9.2%, Celgene (CELG), NXP Semi. (NXPI) and Applied Materials (AMAT) managed to lose in excess of the market with losses of 12.0% on average. Those large losses were somewhat offset by a relatively small 2.3% loss of Qualcomm (QCOM) and the 5.3% loss of Loews Corporation (L). The Cambria fund produced a very large 10.8% loss, far in excess of the Top 5 stocks and the benchmark index. In total, the Top 5 stocks lost 8.6% for December to slightly outperform the benchmark S&P 500 index... Read more