2 Alpine Funds Deliver 7.4%-Plus Dividend Yields

Two Alpine funds from Alpine Woods Capital Investors, LLC rewarded their investors with dividend yields of more than 7.4% and one-year asset appreciation that exceeded 17%.

With robust share-price advances and healthy dividend payouts, these funds repaid their shareholders with total returns that range from 25% to 42% over the customary measurement periods of past 12 months, three years and five years. Both funds have identical ex-dividend dates of October 23, 2017, with the pay dates following a week later, on October 31, 2017.

These two funds from Alpine Woods Capital Investors, LLC are both closed-end funds targeting primarily high current dividend income, with a secondary goal of long-term asset appreciation.

Alpine Global Dynamic Dividend Fund (NYSE:AGD)

As of August 31, 2017, the Alpine Global Dynamic Dividend Fund had more than $140 million in assets invested across 11 sectors. The sectors with the largest shares of the fund’s assets were: Financials, 18.97%; Information Technology, 13.21%; Industrial, 12.87%; and Consumer Discretionary, 12.82%. Most of the assets – 98.72% – were allocated in stocks, with the remainder spread almost equally between exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Cash and Cash Equivalents.

The top three equity holdings were Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with 2.07%, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (MAD:BBVA) with 1.45% and Ferrovial SA (MAD:FER) with 1.42%. From a country distribution perspective, more than half of all assets – 54.13% – were invested in U.S. companies. The United Kingdom with 8.73% and Switzerland with 4.10% rounded out the top three. The remaining assets were allocated into companies from Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Spain and Canada, each with less than 4% of total assets.

The current monthly dividend of $0.065 is equivalent to a 7.7% dividend yield and a $0.78 annual dividend payout. This current yield is 134.71% above the straight average yield for the Financials sector of 3.14%. Compared to the equities in the Closed-End Fund – Foreign Industry segment, which average a 2.93% yield, AGD’s yield is 152.33% higher.

After a 6.4% dip in October 2016, the share price rose steadily with minimal volatility and has gained nearly 30% since the 52-week low in early November 2016. As of the market’s close on September 26, 2017, the share price was $10.55, which is 21.3% higher than it was 12 months ago. Combined with the high-yield dividend income, the total return over the past 12 months was 31.73%, with a 30.26% total return over three years and 25.64% total return over the last five years.

Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund (NYSE:AOD)

At the end of the third quarter, which ended on August 31, 2017, the Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund’s more than $1 billion in total assets was invested in the same 11 sectors as the just-described Alpine Global Dynamic Dividend Fund. However, the Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund (AOD) allocates more assets into the Real Estate sector and fewer assets into the Energy and Materials sectors.

Like its sister fund above, AOD allocated most of its assets – 97.59% – into stocks, while spreading some of its remaining assets into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Cash and Cash Equivalents. The only difference was that AOD allocated more than twice the share of its assets – 1.7% — into ETFs compared to only 0.6% for AGD. Additionally, AOD allocated 0.11% of its assets into Equity-Linked Structured Notes, which AGD does not include at all.

The largest stock holdings in AOD feature Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), 2.34%; Broadcom, Ltd. (NASDAQ:AVGO), 1.50%; Ferrovial SA (MAD:FER), 1.42%; and Nestle SA (NESN.VX), 1.34%. The asset allocation of AOD by country is similar to that of AGD with 57.40% of assets devoted to U.S. equities and the remainder going into companies from The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Spain and Canada.

The current monthly dividend of $0.0575 is equivalent to a $0.69 annual distribution and yields 7.7%. The company started paying a dividend in 2007 and has boosted its annual dividend amount for three consecutive years between 2014 and 2016.

The share price has been rising since October 31, 2016, when the price hit its 52-week bottom. Since reversing a 7.3% decline in October 2013, the share price grew and closed at its 52-week high of $8.98 on September 26, 2017. As of midday, September 27, 2017, the share price was trading around $8.90, which is 16.6% above the price from late September 2016.

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