Markus Andrews

More than $32 billion in U.S. property may be affected by issues that can interfere with transferring homes from one generation to the next, according to estimates.
A situation known as heirs’ property happens when homeowners die without a will and informally leave property to multiple descendants.
Those heirs may be more vulnerable to foreclosures, tax sales or investors who try to acquire the homes for below market value.
A new philanthropic commitment from JPMorgan aims to help tackle this estate planning gap.

A potential buyer walks in to view a home for sale during an open house in Parkland, Florida, May 25, 2021.
Carline Jean | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Owning a home can provide a way to build wealth that will transfer from one generation to the next.
But more than $32 billion in assessed values of U.S. property in 44 states and Washington, D.C., may be affected by issues that can interfere with that wealth transfer, according to estimates.

One such issue, known as heirs’ property, happens when homeowners die without a will and informally leave property to multiple descendants.
The non-formal ownership may make it difficult to pass on property, access government assistance in the event of a natural disaster and to qualify for property tax relief, according to research from JPMorgan Chase.
Those homeowners may also be vulnerable to foreclosures, tax sales, or investors who try to acquire the homes for below market value.
JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday announced it is providing more than $9.6 million in philanthropic commitments to organizations that help preserve homeownership by addressing heirs’ property issues, appraisal bias and the undervaluation of homes.
“As interest rates and mortgage costs are rising, the path to sustainable homeownership has become increasingly difficult,” Heather Higginbottom, head of research policy and insights for corporate responsibility at JPMorgan Chase, said at a Tuesday event hosted by the firm in Atlanta.

“For many existing homeowners, including many here in Atlanta, high rates of heirs’ property and appraisal bias have made it challenging to maintain homeownership and benefit from the equity of their property,” Higginbottom said.
Both heirs’ property and appraisal bias disproportionately affect communities of color.

Estimates have found that as much as half of the property owned by Black Americans is owned as heirs’ property, according to the National Consumer Law Center.
“It’s clearly disproportionately a Black and Brown problem,” said Thomas Mitchell, a professor at Boston College and director of the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. “But it’s not exclusively, by any stretch, just a Black and Brown problem.”
Meanwhile, persistent undervaluation of homes in communities of color encourages a racial wealth gap.
Homes in Black neighborhoods are valued at approximately 21% to 23% less than comparable homes in non-Black majority neighborhoods, according to research from the Brookings Institution.
JPMorgan’s philanthropic commitment will focus on preserving homeownership in targeted locations in Georgia and New York, as well as Jacksonville, Fla., Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.
The money will go toward organizations working to combat heirs’ property and appraisal bias issues through estate planning clinics, legal services, research and market innovations.
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That includes:

$3 million to be granted to Catapult Greater Philadelphia, a community-based nonprofit that is providing a clinic to help people who do not have a legal title to their property in their name;
$2.3 million to the Brookings Institution and Economic Architecture, two organizations that are partnering to address the devaluation of homes in Black neighborhoods;
$2 million to the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at Boston College to produce research and policy recommendations to improve property rights in underserved communities;
$889,000 for Center for NYC Neighborhoods, a community-based nonprofit that raises awareness among Black homeowners and provides free estate planning services;
$500,000 for LISC Jacksonville, an organization from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, to expand heirs’ property and family wealth creation programs;
$500,000 to Howard University’s legal clinic, which provides estate planning and heirs’ property legal services;
$300,000 for the Alcorn State University Foundation, which will conduct research and provide recommendations for the ethical use of public heirs property data;
and $150,000 to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund to expand legal assistance to rural homeowners in the Southeast U.S. More

Real hourly earnings, or wages after inflation, have been positive since May 2023.
That means buying power has increased for the average worker, especially those in non-managerial roles.
Real wages have been negative for two years amid fast-rising consumer prices.

Rudi_suardi | E+ | Getty Images

Americans have seen their buying power rise for a year amid falling inflation and a strong job market, which might be welcome news for households struggling to afford everyday purchases.
The average worker in the private sector saw their real hourly earnings grow 0.8% from May 2023 to May 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“Real” earnings measure the net growth in workers’ wages after inflation. In other words, the average worker in the private sector got a net raise from May 2023 to May 2024, after accounting for price growth in consumer goods and services. Their paycheck today buys more than it did a year ago.

The trend of growth in annual real earnings has persisted since May 2023, according to BLS data. It’s been especially strong for rank-and-file workers who work in non-managerial roles, data shows.
That marks a reversal from April 2021 to April 2023, when inflation spiked and eclipsed growth in the average worker’s paycheck.
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“The last year of increases in real wages is a large and important step forward for working families,” said Chris Tilly, a professor and labor economist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“It means that they can buy more while putting in the same number of hours of work,” he added. “Or, they can decrease the total number of household work hours — for example, cutting down from two jobs to one, or having one earner reduce to part-time in two-earner families — while buying an equivalent amount.”

What happened with real earnings

Real earnings tend to grow at a positive rate during “normal” times, said Maximiliano Dvorkin, an economic policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
However, dynamics in the pandemic-era U.S. economy threw that equilibrium out of whack, economists said.
For one, inflation surged, peaking at a four-decade high in mid-2022.

Meanwhile, the labor market was white-hot as the U.S. economy reopened from its pandemic-induced lull. Job openings hit a record high, unemployment was near a historical low, and workers quit at record levels amid the ease of finding higher-paying gigs elsewhere.
For example, job openings peaked at more than 12 million in March 2022, up from roughly 7 million before the pandemic. That month, the average worker saw their pay growth spike to about 6% annually. Before the pandemic, average raises hadn’t exceeded 4%, according to the BLS, which tracks such data back to 2007.
The average worker got a bigger raise than they had in decades, but the raise wasn’t enough to eclipse inflation, which peaked more than 9% in June 2022. That resulted in two years of falling real wages.

However, inflation has since eased and the labor market remains strong, though it has broadly cooled since 2022, roughly to its pre-pandemic baseline.
“What we observe over the last year is a return to more normal economic conditions after the disruptive forces of the Covid pandemic waned,” Dvorkin said.
“This is good news for consumers,” since it generally equates to an increase in their well-being over time, he added.

Average “nominal” pay (i.e., before inflation) for all workers is up almost 23% to $34.91 an hour since January 2020. Pay has grown even faster for rank-and-file employees, rising over 25% to $30 an hour.
The consumer price index, a key inflation measure, is up a smaller 21% in that time.
While consumer sentiment has been improving, workers are still sour on the U.S. economy. The disconnect between the economy’s overall strength and its perceived weakness among households has come to be known as a “vibe-cession.”

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Microsoft and Nvidia will likely have a weight of around 21% in this tech ETF, while Apple will be down to about 4.5%, according to Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas Research.
The rebalance will be in effect for one quarter, even if Apple outperforms Nvidia significantly ahead of the official date.
The ETF has about $71 billion in assets under management, so a 15-percentage-point change in the fund equates to more than $10 billion.

The logo of Nvidia Corporation is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, May 30, 2017.
Tyrone Siu | Reuters

Nvidia’s blistering rally will force a major technology exchange-traded fund to acquire more than $10 billion worth of shares of the chip giant while cutting dramatically back on Apple.
The index that the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) follows will soon rebalance, based on an adjusted market cap value from Friday’s close. The new calculations show Microsoft as the top stock in the index, followed by Nvidia and then Apple, according to Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas Research.

All three stocks would have a weight above 20% in the index if there were no caps in place. But diversification rules for the index limit how big the cumulative weight of stocks with at least a 5% share of the fund can be.
As a result, Microsoft and Nvidia will likely have a weight of around 21%, while Apple will fall sharply to about 4.5%, Bartolini said.
That is a change from the prior weightings, which saw Nvidia’s weight be kept artificially low by index rules. As of June 14, Microsoft and Apple were both at about 22% each in the fund, while Nvidia was just 6%.

XLK Shake-Up

Company
Portfolio weight as of 6/14
Estimated weighting post-rebalance

Microsoft
22%
21%

Nvidia
6%
21%

Apple
22%
4.5%

Source: SPDR

The race to finish in the top two came down to the final day. As of Monday, market cap data from FactSet shows that all three companies are over $3.2 trillion and within $50 million of each other, though that data does differ slightly from the calculations used in the index.
The XLK has about $71 billion in assets under management, so a 15-percentage-point change in the fund equates to more than $10 billion. SPDR does not comment on specific trading strategies around rebalances.

The big shift in the XLK is an extreme example of how even passive index funds can diverge, especially when focusing on narrow slices of the market.
“Understanding how they might be weighted, where they’re allocated, what the rebalance frequency is, is really important because it can create differences in exposures and make what’s beneath the label seem different from fund to fund,” Bartolini said.
The fund follows the Technology Select Sector Index from S&P Dow Jones Indices, which uses a float-adjusted calculation to determine market cap. The rebalance officially takes effect at the end of this week.
The free-float adjustment for market cap accounts for large holders of an individual stock unlikely to be trading on a daily basis. For example, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 5% of Apple, which could count against it in the index, Bartolini said.
“Its free-float market capitalization is reduced because you have so many controlled interests in the company,” Bartolini said.
The rebalance will be in effect for one quarter, even if Apple outperforms Nvidia significantly ahead of the official date.
On Monday, shares of Apple were up 2%, while Nvidia dipped 0.7%.

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New government inflation data shows the rate of price increases for food is subsiding.
But many Americans still report feeling financially strained from paying for groceries.

A customer shops at a Safeway store on June 11, 2024 in Mill Valley, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

The rate of price increases for food has subsided in recent months, according to the latest government inflation data.
However, shoppers still report feeling burdened by the prices they’re seeing in the grocery store aisles. To that point, within the past few years, 80% of Americans say they’ve felt a notable increase in the cost of groceries, Intuit Credit Karma reported last month.

Since the start of the pandemic, grocery prices have risen 25%, the report also found.
Some consumers have had to sacrifice necessities to afford food, the personal finance company found.
That includes 28% who sacrificed other needs like rent or bills to pay for groceries, and 27% who occasionally skipped meals. Additionally, 18% have either applied for or considered applying for food stamps, while 15% rely on or have considered turning to food banks.
Yet, 53% indicated they earn too much to qualify for food stamps or other government assistance but still have difficulties paying for necessities.
While most consumers report noticing higher grocery costs, 51% have also seen increases in gasoline prices; 39% said other bills like cable, electricity and internet have spiked; 27% said housing costs have gone up; and another 27% said dining out costs have risen.

The survey was conducted online by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma, from May 7-13 among 2,011 adults.

The high cost of groceries has caught the attention of Congress.
“Grocery prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, and in many cases they’ve kept going up, even though the pandemic is over,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said at a recent Senate hearing.
Some retailers have moved to reduce grocery prices in response to consumer price fatigue. Target announced plans to reduce prices on about 5,000 items including meat, milk, fruits and vegetables. Amazon Fresh plans to cut prices on about 4,000 items online and in stores. Walmart has also increased its “rollbacks” on groceries and sales on other items.
For those who are truly struggling to cover grocery costs, finding a local food bank through FeedingAmerica.org may help, according to Credit Karma.  
For those who have the flexibility to reevaluate their spending, trying new strategies may also help.
“It’s a good opportunity to create smart shopping habits,” said Trae Bodge, a smart shopping expert at TrueTrae.com.
While food inflation is subsiding, certain categories still had notable year-over-year price increases as of May. That includes juices and drinks, frankfurters and bacon.
Avoiding categories where food costs are surging may help keep grocery costs low, experts say.
Where possible, consumers can shift their purchasing habits — by eating at home rather than dining out or by buying chicken instead of beef, for example — to limit the effects of rising costs, said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.
“There is a range of opportunities to make choices and to substitute at lower prices and to get better value,” Hamrick said.
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Visiting different retailers — both in person and online — may help consumers find the best value available and take advantage of sales.
If a store has a loyalty program, Bodge recommends signing up for it to make sure purchases are eligible for discounts or rewards. Switching over to store or generic brands can also provide meaningful savings. Additionally, buying products in bulk may help save up to 40%, she said.
Certain websites and apps help make shopping more efficient.
Coupon sites like CouponCabin may give discounts for ordering groceries online. Flashfood may provide alerts to deals on overstocked grocery items. Martie also has offers on deeply discounted items.
“If you combine all of those things, you can save significantly on your groceries,” Bodge said.
The method of payment at the checkout counter may also lead to more savings, specifically concerning cash-back rewards through credit cards, she said.
To effectively use those perks, it’s important to maintain a balance you can pay off each month. Research from the Urban Institute shows Americans may be saddled with debt after turning to credit cards, buy now pay later programs and payday loans to pay for groceries. More

The Federal Reserve signaled that just one cut is expected before the end of the year, which means anyone who carries a balance on their credit card won’t get much relief from sky-high interest charges.
Rather than wait for a Fed move, consumers should take matters into their own hands, experts say.
Here are the best ways to lower your credit card’s annual percentage rate.

The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged last week and signaled that only one cut is expected before the end of the year. That means anyone who carries a balance on their credit card won’t be getting much of a break from sky-high interest charges.
“Consumers need to understand that the cavalry isn’t coming anytime soon, so the best thing you can do is take things into your own hands when it comes to lowering credit card interest rates,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.

The good news is there are options out there, especially if you have solid credit, he added.

Since most credit cards have a variable rate, there’s a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark. In the wake of the recent rate hike cycle, the average credit card rate rose from 16.34% in March 2022 to almost 21% today — near an all-time high, according to Bankrate.
“As long as interest rates remain relatively high, it’s important that consumers continue to use credit smartly, especially when it comes to higher interest products such as credit cards,” Michele Raneri, vice president of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion, recently told CNBC.
“It’s best to only use these cards to the extent there is confidence they can be paid off relatively soon, as interest can pile on quickly, particularly at the higher rates of today,” she added.

How to lower your credit card APR

Annual percentage rates will start to come down once the Fed cuts rates, but even then they will only ease off extremely high levels. Since the central bank now projects it will cut interest rates just once in 2024, APRs aren’t likely to fall much, Schulz explained.

“Those anticipating a dip in new credit card APRs in the near future should probably adjust their expectations,” Schulz said.
Rather than wait for a modest adjustment in the months ahead, borrowers could call their card issuer and ask for a lower rate, switch to a zero-interest balance transfer credit card or consolidate and pay off high-interest credit cards with a personal loan, Schulz advised.
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Cards offering 15, 18 and even 21 months with no interest on transferred balances are still out there, according to Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
“The fact that zero-percent balance transfer cards remain widely available, is, on its face, surprising,” said Rossman, particularly given the amount of inflation and the number of interest rate hikes the credit card market has weathered since the pandemic.
Meanwhile, U.S. consumers are carrying more credit card debt.
Total credit card balances have been above $1 trillion since August 2023 and are currently hovering around $1.12 trillion, according to the most recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
But that hasn’t deterred credit card issuers from offering generous terms on balance transfer cards, Rossman said.

“It’s actually a very profitable time for credit card issuers because rates are up and more people are carrying more debt for longer periods of time,” Rossman said. “But most of those people are paying that debt back. If we were to see the job market worsen or delinquencies to go up even more, that’s when I think issuers get nervous. But right now, it’s kind of a Goldilocks environment for credit card issuers.”
It’s also an ideal time for consumers to take advantage of all the options credit card issuers are offering.
“Balance transfer cards are still your best weapon in the battle against credit card debt,” Schulz said.
A balance transfer credit card moves your outstanding debt from one or more credit cards onto a new card, typically with a lower interest rate.

Alternatively, “consumers should consider exploring lower interest products to help consolidate their higher interest debt and lower their monthly payments,” TransUnion’s Raneri said.
Currently, the interest rate on a personal loan is just above 12%, on average, according to Bankrate.
“If you don’t have good enough credit to get a zero-percent balance transfer card, a personal loan can be a good alternative,” Schulz also said.
And consolidating comes with the added benefit of letting you simplify outstanding debts while lowering your monthly payment.
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Car payments have skyrocketed in recent years due to a combination of high prices and high interest rates. While some relief may come soon, industry insiders say prices may still remain high for quite some time.
As of May, customers were paying, on average, $760 a month for an auto loan, according to Moody’s Analytics. While that is a drop from a high of $795 in December 2022, it is still a roughly 40% increase over the $535 average payment in May 2019.

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A near-record 17% of car owners are paying more than $1,000 a month, according to Edmunds, a car shopping site and industry data provider. Though slightly down from the record of 17.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023, the rate has remained above 17% for a year.
“The idea you’re going to pay $700, $800 a month for the next six years, I mean, it just sounds crazy for a depreciating asset,” said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist for Cox Automotive, which owns Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, plus provides a range of services for the auto industry.

‘Underwater’ trade-ins are bumping up payments

Many customers who bought vehicles at high prices in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic are now “underwater” or have negative equity — meaning the loan on their car is larger than what the car is worth — by a record amount. In the first quarter, 23% of customers with trade-ins had negative equity of more than $6,167 on average, according to Edmunds.
The steep drop in used-car prices from pandemic-era highs has produced unusually high rates of depreciation for a lot of vehicles.

It is not uncommon for car owners to have a bit of negative equity on a vehicle when they trade it in. About one-third of trade-ins carried negative equity prior to the pandemic. It is the amount of negative equity that is concerning, says Edmunds Senior Director of Insights Ivan Drury.

Trading in a vehicle with negative equity often means the consumer rolls that balance owed into the new auto loan, resulting in higher payments, with higher interest rates, for longer periods.
In the first quarter of 2024, the average payment with a trade-in was $736, with an average interest rate of 7.1% for 68 months. The rate for a trade-in with negative equity was $887, at a rate of 8.1%, for nearly 76 months.
Steeper payments on that new car can create a kind of vicious cycle that dog consumers for much of their lives, Drury said.
“You’re paying off a car from like 10 or 15 years ago,” Drury said. “You’ve never actually paid off a vehicle. That means you’re constantly paying for something you don’t even own anymore.”

When and how car buyers may see pricing relief

Customers at a Ford dealership in Colma, California, on July 22, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The good news for car shoppers is that incentives have risen over the course of the past year by 81%, according to Moody’s.
Incentives can vary. There are straightforward discounts on a car, sometimes called “cash on the hood.” There is interest rate subvention, where a customer might receive 0% interest for a certain number of months. There are also trade-in allowances, where a dealer might give an above-market price on a trade-in.
But it is unclear when the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, and even when they do, there is about a six-month lag before those changes show up in auto loan rates.
The Federal Reserve does not determine auto loan rates, but it does determine the rate at which banks can borrow federal funds. Due to that, it influences the rates banks then charge customers for loans, including ones on cars. In addition, inflation pushes vehicle sticker prices higher.
“Inflation has remained a little higher and stickier than we thought,” said Mike Brisson, senior economist for Moody’s. “So the Fed’s expected date of lowering interest or lowering the prime rate has been pushed out. The manufacturers lower the interest rate artificially using incentives. So you’ll see some relief there. However, real relief in the actual interest rate isn’t going to come until after this year.”
That relief may be short lived, however. Longer-term structural changes to the auto market may keep prices — and payments — high for years to come.
Watch the video to learn more. More

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS on Monday unveiled a plan to “close a major tax loophole” used by large, complex partnerships.
The plan targets so-called “related party basis shifting,” and could raise more than $50 billion in tax revenue over the next 10 years.
Pass-through business filings with more than $10 million in assets increased 70% between 2010 and 2019, but the audit rate for these partnerships fell from 3.8% to 0.1% during that period, according to the Treasury. 

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel testifies before the House Appropriations Committee in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2024.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS on Monday unveiled a plan to “close a major tax loophole” used by large, complex partnerships, which could raise more than an estimated $50 billion in tax revenue over the next 10 years.
The plan targets so-called “related party basis shifting,” where single businesses operating through different legal entities trade original purchase prices on assets to take more deductions or reduce future gains, according to the Treasury.

“These tax shelters allow wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying what they owe,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters on a press call Friday.  
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After a year of studying the basis-shifting issue, the agencies announced their intent to issue proposed regulations. They also released a revenue ruling on related-party partnership transactions involving basis shifting without “economic substance” for the parties or “substantial business purpose.”    
The plan builds on ongoing IRS efforts to increase audits on the wealthiest taxpayers, large corporations and complex partnerships.
“Treasury and the IRS are focused on addressing high-end tax abuse from all angles, and the proposed rules released today will increase tax fairness and reduce the deficit,” U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement.

Pass-through business filings with more than $10 million in assets increased 70% between 2010 and 2019, but the audit rate for these partnerships fell from 3.8% to 0.1% during that period, according to the Treasury. 
This has contributed to an estimated $160 billion a year tax gap — the shortfall between what is owed and collected — attributed to the top 1% of tax filers, the agency said.

The battle over IRS funding

The announcement comes less than one week after President Joe Biden’s top economic advisor unveiled his “key principles” for tax policy, including sustained IRS funding.  
“We should ensure ultra-wealthy taxpayers pay what they owe and play by the same rules by maintaining the President’s investment in the IRS,” White House National Economic Council advisor Lael Brainard told reporters Wednesday during a press call.
IRS funding has been a target for Republicans since Congress approved nearly $80 billion in funding via the Inflation Reduction Act. More

The Cisco logo is displayed in front of Cisco headquarters on February 09, 2024 in San Jose, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Dividend-paying stocks can give investors an opportunity to cushion their portfolios from market volatility — and they can also enhance returns.
Selecting the right dividend stocks is no easy feat for investors. Wall Street’s best analysts have insight into companies’ ability to provide attractive dividend yield and upside for the long term.

Here are three attractive dividend stocks, according to Wall Street’s top pros on TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
Kimberly-Clark
Consumer products giant Kimberly-Clark (KMB) is this week’s first dividend pick. The owner of popular brands like Huggies and Kleenex is a dividend king, a term used for companies that have raised their dividends for at least 50 consecutive years.
In the first quarter of 2024, Kimberly-Clark returned $452 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. With a quarterly dividend of $1.22 per share ($4.88 on an annualized basis), KMB offers a dividend yield of 3.5%.
Earlier this month, RBC Capital analyst Nik Modi upgraded his rating for KMB stock to buy from hold and boosted the price target to $165 from $126. The upgrade followed a thorough assessment of the company following its analyst day event in March, which reflected that KMB has “shifted from a cost-focused company to a growth-oriented enterprise.”
Modi thinks that KMB is well-positioned for faster and more reliable growth. He is now confident about the company achieving its long-term targets, including a gross margin of 40% and a compound annual growth rate of more than 3% (local currency) in revenue by 2030.

The analyst attributed Kimberly-Clark’s transformation to the leadership of its CEO Mike Hsu. He acknowledged that the company’s decision to reorganize into three business units (North America, International Personal Care, and International Family and Professional) was a step in the right direction. It brought down KMB’s product costs and enhanced speed to market.
Modi ranks No. 593 among more than 8,800 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 61% of the time, delivering an average return of 6.8%. (See Kimberly-Clark’s Stock Buybacks on TipRanks) 
Chord Energy
Next on the list is Chord Energy (CHRD), an oil and gas operator in the Williston Basin. In June, the company paid a base dividend of $1.25 per share and a variable dividend of $1.69 per share.
Chord Energy recently announced the completion of its acquisition of Enerplus. The company expects the deal to strengthen its position in the Williston Basin, with enhanced scale, low-cost inventory, and solid shareholder returns.
Following the announcement, Mizuho analyst William Janela reaffirmed a buy rating on CHRD stock with a price target of $214. The analyst highlighted that the company increased its estimate for annualized deal synergies by $50 million, or 33%, to more than $200 million.
Janela thinks that given the well productivity of both Chord Energy and Enerplus in the Williston Basin, the focus will now be on the combined company’s enhanced operational scale. Moreover, the deal will result in above-average cash returns, with about a 9% payout yield and below-average financial leverage.
“Relative valuation remains attractive with shares trading at a discount to peers on FCF/EV [Free Cash Flow/ Enterprise Value],” said Janela. 
Janela ranks No. 333 among more than 8,800 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 57% of the time, delivering an average return of 29.9%. (See Chord Energy Stock Charts on TipRanks) 
Cisco Systems
Our third pick is dividend-paying technology stock Cisco Systems (CSCO). The networking giant paid $2.9 billion to shareholders in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, including dividends worth $1.6 billion and share repurchases of $1.3 billion. At a quarterly dividend of 40 cents per share, CSCO offers a dividend yield of 3.5%.
In reaction to the recently held investor and analyst day, Jefferies analyst George Notter reiterated a buy rating on Cisco stock with a price target of $56. The analyst said that he feels more positive about the company’s prospects after the event and has better clarity on its strategy with regard to Splunk. Cisco completed the acquisition of Splunk, a cybersecurity company, in March 2024.
At the event, the company maintained its Q4 fiscal 2024 guidance and continues to expect low-to-mid-single-digit revenue growth in fiscal 2025. Regarding the company’s fiscal 2026 and 2027 targets, Notter said, “We thought the 4-6% Y/Y revenue growth targets looked pretty good.” Cisco expects its earnings per share (EPS) to grow by 6% to 8% in Fiscal 2026-2027, with improved gross margins. 
The analyst explained that Cisco’s long-term growth targets look good, given that the company has been growing its revenue at a rate of 1% to 3% in a period spanning more than the past decade.   
Notter ranks No. 629 among more than 8,800 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 62% of the time, delivering an average return of 10.1%. (See Cisco Hedge Fund Activity on TipRanks)  More