Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD) provides services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, and petrochemicals. It’s clients are in the continental United States, Canada, and Gulf of Mexico. EPD also develops pipeline and other energy infrastructure, and it’s got a high yield and has been diversifying through acquisitions, which makes it worth looking into if you’re looking for income and growth.

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Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD) Dividend History.

Here’s a look at EPD’s dividend history over the past five years:

Even though the price has risen about 15.5% over the past 6 months, it still sports an attractive 6.90% yield and has a lot of upside potential if energy demand soars again like it did in the early part of 2008. After the fall in energy prices, Enterprise Products Partners saw its share price slashed with other oil and gas stocks even though it has a fairly limited exposure to commodity price changes of the underlying energy source. It is mostly an energy product transporter and facilitator, which means its costs are relatively fixed as compared with those of energy explorers.

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With chatter about a bubble in bonds building, it may be a good time to look for alternative sources of investment income. One such source has long been dividend paying stocks, trusts and partnerships. Here are two such dividend plays – one is a Real Estate Investment Trust, and the other is an energy partnership.

Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY)

Annaly Capital Management is a mortgage REIT (real estate investment trust), and as such the company is not subject to federal corporate income tax, provided it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders in the form of dividends. NOTE: The income generated by a REIT may be taxable at your income tax rate, and not at the capital gains rate. So check with your tax advisor if this is a point of concern.

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What makes NLY attractive.

One of the things that makes Annaly Capital attractive is its low debt level compared to other REITs and owners of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). For example, Commercial banks are typically leveraged 30:1; thrifts – 25:1; hedge funds – 20-30:1; and Annaly – 8-12:1, or less than half that of a typical thrift.

Another thing is that the MBS that Annaly Capital invests in are backed by agencies of the U.S. government like Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While these agencies are essentially bankrupt, the government is not likely to let them fail so they have a de-facto credit rating of AAA.

NLY dividend history.

NLY has increased its dividend from about $2.20 per share in 2008 to $2.4 in 2009, while the yield has declined from 16.6% to 13.4% as the price has risen. At the time of this post, NLY was yielding 16.80%, or $3 per share annually.

How safe is NLY dividend?

At first glance, there’s a lot of scary stuff to be seen in the summary of Annaly. After all, it was imploding Mortgage Backed Securities that began the current recession and market crash of 2008-2009. And Annaly is using leverage to purchase these securities, leverage which magnifies gains AND losses alike.

But upon further inspection, the credit risk for Annaly seems low because the MBS that it invests in are backed by the U.S. government and, as mentioned above, their leverage rate is lower than the industry average.

What can affect its performance (and dividend) is a major swing in interest rates. This is largely because of its use of leverage, or borrowing, to magnify its returns. But if management can keep ahead of rate trends it can limit the squeeze that variable interest rate MBS put on Annaly’s profits.

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With the low fees and wide selection of ETFs, you can now build a portfolio for maximum and minimum fees relatively easily. Here’s one such sample portfolio from Kiplinger that allocates 65% to bonds, 35% to stocks. The bond section is spread between conservative, laddered treasures and riskier junk bonds. As of a month ago, the yield for the portfolio was 6.4%. Not too shabby when you consider inflation is practically non existent and you can lock your money up for 10 years in treasury notes for a measly 3.6%.

• 25% iShares iBoxx $ Inv Grade Corp (LQD)
• 15% iShares iBoxx $ High Yld Corp (HYG)
• 15% PowerShares Em Mkts Sov Debt (PCY)
• 15% Vanguard REIT (VNQ)
• 10% iShares DJ Select Dividend (DVY)
• 10% PowerShares 1-30 Laddered Treas (PLW)
• 10% Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU)

LQD

The iShares iBoxx $ Inv Grade Corp ETF tracks the iBoxx $ Liquid Investment Grade Index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.15%
YIELD:5.30%

HYG

Seeks the results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the iBoxx(Reg. TM) $ Liquid High Yield Index. The fund invests at least 90% of assets in securities that comprise the index. However, it may invest up to 20% of assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, and in bonds not included within the index
EXPENSE RATIO:0.50%
YIELD:9.78%

PCY

This fund normally invests at least 80% of total assets in emerging markets U.S. dollar-denominated government bonds.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.50%
YIELD:6.08%

VNQ

The Vanguard REIT ETF tracks the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) US REIT Index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.11%
YIELD:5.58%

DVY

The iShares DJ Select Dividend ETF tracks the Dow Jones Select Dividend index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.40%
YIELD: 4.32%

PLW

This fund normally invests at least 80% of total assets in U.S. Treasury securities.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.25%
YIELD:3.56%

XLU

INDEX:The Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF tracks the S&P International Dividend Opportunities index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.48%
YIELD:3.57%

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Here’s an all ETF portfolio that’s sure to see some volatility. It’s geared toward long term growth, and as such it invests heavily in small cap stocks, foreign markets and commodities. The fund total is 90% stocks, 10% commodities and is best left to investors with long time horizons and a high tolerance for risk.

Here’s the portfolio:

• 40% iShares Russell 3000 ( IWV)
• 20% Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US (VEU)
• 10% PowerShares DB Commodity (DBC)
• 10% Vanguard FTSE All-Wld ex-US Sm Cp* (VSS)
• 10% Vanguard REIT (VNQ)
• 10% WisdomTree SmallCap Earnings (EES)

*Less than one year old.

IWV

Seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Russell 3000 index.
EXPENSE RATIO: 0.20%
YIELD:1.90%

VEU

Seeks to track the performance of the FTSE All-World ex-US Index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.20%
YIELD:1.83%

DBC

Seeks to reflect the performance of the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity index.
EXPENSE RATIO: 0.75%
YIELD:N/A

VSS

Seeks to track the performance of the FTSE Global Small Cap ex US Index.
EXPENSE RATIO:N/A (just launched in April of 2009)
YIELD:N/A(just launched in April of 2009)

VNQ

Seeks to provide a high level of income and moderate long-term capital appreciation. The fund normally invests approximately 98% of assets in stocks issued by equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) in an attempt to track the investment performance of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) US REIT Index.
EXPENSE RATIO: 0.11%
YIELD:5.58%

EES

Seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree SmallCap Earnings index.
EXPENSE RATIO: 0.38%
YIELD:0.80%

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When this portfolio was originally recommended by Kiplinger, about a month or so ago, the yield was a hefty 5.8%.

A large part of that yield comes from the LQD fund that focuses on high-quality corporate bonds, the IGOV fund which buys foreign government bonds, HYG which focuses on junk bonds, and dividend stalwart DVY. It’s important to not that the DVY ETF was hammered last year due to its heavy weighting in financial stocks. This has since changed, so don’t expect the DVY to mimic bank stocks so much.

• 20% iShares iBoxx $ Inv Grade Corp (LQD)
• 20% iShares DJ Select Dividend (DVY)
• 10% iShares S&P/Citi Intl Treas Bond (IGOV)
• 10% iShares iBoxx $ High Yld Corp (HYG)
• 10% SPDR S&P Intl Dividend (DWX)
• 10% Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU)
• 10% Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (VIG)
• 10% Vanguard REIT (VNQ)

LQD

The iShares iBoxx $ Inv Grade Corp ETF tracks the iBoxx $ Liquid Investment Grade Index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.15%
YIELD:5.30%

DVY

The iShares DJ Select Dividend ETF tracks the Dow Jones Select Dividend index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.40%
YIELD: 4.32%

IGOV

The iShares S&P/Citi Intl Treas Bond tracks the S&P/Citigroup International Treasury Bond Index Ex US.
EXPENSE RATIO: N/A
YIELD:N/A

HYG

The iShares iBoxx $ High Yld Corp ETF tracks the iBoxx(Reg. TM) $ Liquid High Yield Index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.50%
YIELD:9.78%

DWX

The SPDR S&P Intl Dividend ETF tracks
EXPENSE RATIO:
YIELD:

XLU

INDEX:The Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF tracks the S&P International Dividend Opportunities index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.48%
YIELD:3.57%

VIG

The Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF tracks the Mergent Dividend Achievers Select index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.24%
YIELD: 2.24%

VNQ

The Vanguard REIT ETF tracks the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) US REIT Index.
EXPENSE RATIO:0.11%
YIELD:5.58%

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Utilities have a long history of being a safe haven – especially for yield hungry income investors. This is sill true today with weaker consumer spending in the U.S. and lower global output depressing stock prices, and the government debt snowballing to historic amounts pushing the yield on treasuries downward.

Here’s 5 quick reasons utilities look really good right now:

1. Regulated utilities have built-in profit margins.
2. They have predictable dividends.
3. They usually reduce a portfolio’s beta.
4. The current utility ETF’s are yielding more than long-term treasuries, which suggests that they are oversold relative to treasuries.
5. You can own a diversified basket of utilities in the Utilities Sector SPDR ( XLU) and Vanguard’s Utilities ( VPU) ETF’s.

Here’s a chart showing the divergence of the XLU ETF from treasuries (IEF) and equities (SPY):

… And some stats on the ETF’s;

XLU.

yield: 4.66%
P/E: 10.64
Total Expense Ratio: 0.22%
Annual Holdings Turnover: 4%
Total Net Assets: 1.94B

VPU.

Yield: 4.33%
P/E: 10.62
Total Expense Ratio: 0.2%
Annual Holdings Turnover: 23%
Total Net Assets: 320.65M

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