Wall Street is on a roller coaster again, as investors try to navigate the path between high inflation and the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hikes. The former is raging – whether you blame Russia or Biden, the fact of high inflation can no longer be avoided – while the latter is rising – but whether it is rising fast enough to blunt inflation is yet to be determined.
Jim Cramer, the well-known host of CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’ program, takes a hint from the bond market, where the US Treasury 2-year note is up to 4.3% lately. In Cramer’s view, this sharp rise in the mid-term Treasury note indicates further aggressive Federal Reserve action on interest rates – and that brings with it an increased risk of a general economic recession.
This, in turn, brings Cramer to a specific investment choice – high-yield dividend stocks. “You want to take shelter in the accidental high-yielders because their dividends will give you a cushion,” Cramer noted.
To find these ‘accidental high-yielders,’ Cramer screened the S&P 500 index, seeking out stocks off 30% or more from peak values and yielding 4% or better on the dividend.
Cramer gives several of these stocks his personal approval. We’ve pulled up the details on two of his picks from the TipRanks database, and we’ll look at them together with commentary from the Street’s analysts.
Devon Energy Corporation (DVN)
The first of Cramer’s picks that we’ll check out is Devon Energy, an Oklahoma City-based, independent, hydrocarbon exploration and production company focused on onshore assets in the US. Devon operates mainly in the Delaware Basin, one of the major oil and gas formations on the border between West Texas and New Mexico. But while the Texas ops make up the core of the company’s work, Devon is also active in Colorado, Montana, and Oklahoma.
Devon is in the midst of an expansionary move, and in early August the company announced a definitive acquisition agreement for Validus Energy, an operator in the Texan Eagle Ford formation. The acquisition is cash transaction, worth $1.8 billion, will be…
..
