Brookfield Asset Management Inc (BAM)

[Investorman]

Do the math

Prices are down. Yields are up. Rates are low. Look, it doesn't take a market guru to see the opportunity here. For the long-run investor, the stock market is stupid cheap right now. Former highfliers Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and PotashCorp (NYSE: POT), both of which sport meaningful competitive advantages, have been beaten down to the point that even this curmudgeonly investor is kicking their tires. Meanwhile, staid dividend payers from Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) to Chevron (NYSE: CVX) sit like fish in a barrel for the long-term investor.

Indeed, these beaten-down dividend dealers have caught my interest for two reasons. First, because you're currently able to gobble up blue-ribbon stocks at flea market prices. And second, because dividend-paying stocks offer the best of both worlds: Not only are they less volatile, but according to Dr. Jeremy Siegel, portfolios invested in the highest-yielding S&P 500 stocks outperformed portfolios in the lowest-yielding by almost five percentage points a year from 1957 through 2003.