Last month, I was a speaker at the MoneyShow investor conference in Las Vegas. I enjoy presenting there very much. I also love to learn what other investment services like mine are recommending to their subscribers.

So I took some notes.

At the MoneyShow, I gave two solo presentations. I discussed the rapidly expanding universe of high-yield, option strategy ETFs during one. My other presentation explained defined maturity bond ETFs and how to integrate them into a diversified portfolio.

My final event was as one of the panelists on a five-member panel of experts with a theme of sharing some of our favorite stocks for 2024. Each panelist recommended five to six stocks, so there were a lot of very interesting investment ideas.

Several of the panel members discussed a few of the same stocks. Each of us had different analysis approaches and investment strategies, so I thought that stocks that worked for three or more experts would be of interest to a lot of investors.

Here are three stocks with widespread mention from the panelists and my thoughts:

3M Co. (MMM) was highlighted as a Dividend Aristocrat with an above-average yield. 3M Company has increased its dividend for 65 straight years. The current yield is 6.5%. Those are very attractive numbers for investors interested in blue-chip dividend stocks.

I wasn’t one of the 3M Co. fans. I think the dividend growth rate of 2% over the last five years is unappealing. With a bit of work, it’s not hard to find solid companies with yield plus dividend growth numbers significantly higher than the 8.5% total of 3M Co.

Enterprise Product Partners LP (EPD) is an energy midstream company organized as a master limited partnership (MLP). With a $60 billion market cap, Enterprise Product Partners LP is the largest company in the MLP sector. It recently became a Dividend Aristocrat with 25 consecutive years of dividend growth. The yield of 7.5% plus a five-year average payout growth of 3% makes Enterprise Product Partners LP more attractive than MMM.

The problem with MLPs is that they send Schedules K-1 to investors for tax reporting. K-1s complicate your tax return, and these investments should not be owned in qualified plans such as IRAs and Roth IRAs. The MLP world has shrunk to a handful of very capable companies, so I recommend owning an actively managed MLP ETF, which sends out a 1099 at tax time.

Hercules Capital Inc. (HTGC) is a business development company (BDC) that provides debt and equity funding in the venture capital world. BDCs are pass-through entities, so they must pay out 90% of net investment income as dividends to investors. Hercules Capital yields 8.5%. The company has grown its dividends by 5% per year over the last five years and has paid supplemental dividends every quarter since 2020.

Hercules Capital has been a recommended stock to my Dividend Hunter subscribers since 2015. I consider it to be one of the top two or three BDCs. With dividends reinvested, Hercules Capital returned 145% over the last five years.

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