We contrarians follow Wall Street analysts because we like to fade their opinions!
When most say Buy, we are cautious. There is nobody left to upgrade these shares.
When they slap a Sell label, we are intrigued. So you’re saying the next rating change will be an upgrade?
These slippery suits rate most stocks Buys because, well, that’s the business. As we speak, 400 of the (!) is rated a Buy!
Even at All-Time Highs, Analysts Say 80% of the Market Is a Buy!
Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence
So let’s sift through the Holds and the Sells. Today we’ll sort through a four-pack yielding between 7.9% and 20.6%. We begin with a pair of real estate investment trusts (REITs), which are known for paying “really high” dividends.
National Storage Affiliates Trust (NYSE:) (NSA, 7.9% yield) is a self-storage REIT with 1,069 properties across 37 states and Puerto Rico. This is a recession-resistant industry. During boom times, people purchase—and stash—stuff. In downtimes, they downsize and need an extra place to stash that Crate & Barrel couch.
Self-storage stocks do weather booms and busts, however. The flow of “stuff” is not constant. Currently, NSA is dealing with a 20% pullback:
After Optimism in 2024, NSA Shares Have Slumped 20% in 2025
NSA reported numerous issues in its most recent quarter, including lower earnings, core FFO, same store net operating income, and same store period-end occupancy. However, earnings from competitors like Public Storage (NYSE:) and Extra Space Storage (NYSE:) revealed similar issues, so this points to more of a challenging operating environment in the space than it does unique challenges for NSA, which historically has been a strong operator.
We discussed, but cautioned against, NSA as a hated stock earlier this year. And the situation, indeed, has deteriorated since then. Shares are down by 13%. The stock has picked up a few more Sell calls.
NSA’s multiple is down to 13-times FFO. But payout coverage has tightened, too. The company expects to earn $2.20 per share at the midpoint, while NSA is on pace to pay out $2.28 in dividends.
Alexanders (NYSE:) (ALX, 8.5% yield) is a landlord with five (count ‘em, five) holdings. While technically an office REIT, its properties include retail and residential exposure, too. Needless to say, Alexander’s is extraordinarily concentrated, with tenant Bloomberg accounting for 60% of revenues over the first nine months of 2025.
Also worth noting: Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:) not only owns roughly a third of this Big Apple real estate group, but it also manages it. That means ALX owes it annual management fees and occasionally development fees. And over the last quarter, Alexander’s entered an extension with Vornado on a $300 million loan encumbering 731 Lexington Ave., then failed to repay the loan by the extended maturity date in October. Now, Alexander’s is in discussions with the lenders about a potential loan restructuring.
Despite its issues, the stock is sitting on double-digit total returns in 2025. That’s better than the broader real estate sector, which is just over breakeven for the year.
But Wall Street still can’t get behind ALX, and the reason why might have more to do with its dividend than anything else.
- 2023: ALX paid $18 in dividends against $15.80 in funds from operations (FFO, an important metric of REIT profitability)
- 2024: ALX paid $18 in dividends against $15.19 in FFO
- 2025: ALX has paid out $13.50 in dividends against $9.84 in FFO through three quarters.
Worse? That $9.84 in FFO is about 11% worse than at the same point last year, continuing a trend of declining funds from operations.
Post-COVID FFO Rebound Might Have Papered Over Alexander’s Problems
That also points to a full valuation for ALX shares, which are trading at more than 16 times 2025’s annualized FFO.
Robert Half (NYSE:) (RHI, 9.0% yield) predominantly works in three areas: Contract Talent Solutions (placing temporary workers with companies), Permanent Placement Talent Solutions (helping companies recruit and land full-time workers) and Protiviti (consulting services for compliance, finance, HR, legal and more).
In short, its job is to put people into jobs. The problem? AI is coming for these jobs.
Robert Half wouldn’t have popped up on most dividend radars at the start of 2025—but in less than a year, its yield has ballooned from 3% then to 9% now. We can thank a nosedive in RHI shares, which are down 80% since peaking in 2022 and off by about 60% year-to-date, prompting more Sell calls (3) and Holds (6) than Buys (2).
RHI’s Stock Price and Dividend Are Sprinting Away From Each Other
But the reason I’m even taking a look at Robert Half is that it might not be the doomed AI victim it seems.
First off: RHI’s fall started from a bubblicious peak. Remember: The post-COVID reopening set off a hiring spree that was so frenetic, several companies that have recently laid off employees claimed they overhired during that time. RHI shares were overcooked then and destined to fall amid the inevitable hiring moderation that followed.
This year? Hiring hasn’t just slowed; ADP recently estimated that U.S. companies were ditching more than 11,000 jobs per week through late October.
How much of this is due to a stumbling economy and tariff tumult, and how much of this can be chalked up to AI? Robert Half, at least, seems to think the artificial intelligence narrative is extremely overplayed.
“There were big studies by Stanford, Harvard, and Yale,” CEO Keith Waddell said during Robert Half’s third-quarter earnings call. “Stanford says AI impact is for early career entry-level people, that more experienced roles remain stable. Harvard says generative AI is reducing entry-level hiring while increasing reliance on senior talent. Yale says the broader labor market has not experienced any discernible disruption from generative AI. I guess my point would be as to impact to labor overall, impact to, for us, accounting and finance talent overall, we’ve seen very little impact.”
Robert Half is still facing significant issues regardless. Q4 guidance came up short. The macro picture is still uncertain. Dividend coverage is suddenly a problem, too. The company’s profits are expected to plunge by 45% this year, to $1.34 per share, before rebounding quite a bit to $1.79 per year. But aggressive growth in the dividend has brought the payout to 57 cents quarterly ($2.28 annually), which will outstrip earnings by quite a bit through at least the end of 2026, if estimates hold.
A sudden economic turn for the better could turn the 9%-yielding Robert Half into a turnaround monster. But Wall Street appears to be betting on the status quo.
It’s hard to find many stocks yielding more than Cricut (NASDAQ:) (CRCT, 20.6% yield), a craft-store heavyweight whose machines let users turn their ideas into professional-looking handmade goods such as T-shirts, mugs and interior decorations. But the company would also remind us it’s a “creativity platform” with software that integrates its machines with design apps (including its own Cricut Joy App) and a pair of subscription plans.
Cricut first grabbed my attention in 2024. It had been paid a few special dividends before, but in July, it kicked off a new semiannual dividend program alongside another large special distribution. It stood out because while most companies unfurl new dividends when the bottom line is growing, CRCT did so while its profits were flagging.
This Isn’t When We’d Expect a Company to Commit to Regular Dividends
The last time I checked on Cricut (in May 2025), the stock had announced an even bigger special dividend, yielded 15%, and analysts were pretty sour on it.
A few months—and a nearly 25% decline later—it yields north of 20% and the pros downright hate it. Every analyst covering the stock says we should ditch it.
I wouldn’t tell that to Cricut’s fervent and loyal user base. In fact, the company itself has said that word-of-mouth is one of its strongest drivers of new users. Meanwhile, tariffs haven’t bitten as hard as expected, and the company is expected to expand its profits by more than 20% in 2025.
But even a great product doesn’t guarantee continued growth, especially when that product belongs to a niche like crafting. Revenues are expected to remain flat if not shrink a bit over the next couple of years. 2026 profits are projected to fall off a cliff. And if soft job markets lead to a subdued holiday shopping season (historically Cricut’s biggest quarter), the company could fall behind optimistic views for the full year.
Not to mention: The lion’s share of CRCT’s yield (about 16 points’ worth!) hinges on special distributions that simply aren’t guaranteed.
Disclosure: Brett Owens and Michael Foster are contrarian income investors who look for undervalued stocks/funds across the U.S. markets. Click here to learn how to profit from their strategies in the latest report, “7 Great Dividend Growth Stocks for a Secure Retirement.”