Wells Fargo (WFC) and Halliburton (HAL) headline a group of five dividend-paying Club stocks that are expected to post robust earnings growth this year. The bank and oilfield services firm jumped off the page in our latest screen of Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust, the portfolio we use for the Club. We wanted to see which holdings are projected to boost per-share earnings this year well above the roughly 2% earnings growth estimated for the overall S & P 500 . We sought to ensure they’re paying dividends, too, an important part of capital return strategies along with share repurchases. (We highlighted the Club’s buyback royalty last week.) Investors should also pay attention to valuation, so we excluded stocks trading above the S & P 500’s multiple of 18 times forward earnings. (Calculating a forward price-to-earnings ratio, a common valuation metric used by investors to compare stocks, starts with a company’s stock price or an index level and then dividing it by the next 12 months earnings-per-share estimates.) The full list of stocks that passed this screening test: Wells Fargo, Halliburton, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Caterpillar (CAT) and Morgan Stanley (MS) Before we get into some commentary on each, here are the full parameters we used for this analysis as of the close after Tuesday’s Federal Reserve-driven selloff. Calendarized 2023 EPS growth of at least 10%. Current dividend yield above 1% Forward price-to-earnings ratio of 18 or below. Note: For this story, we used calendarized earnings and estimates – meaning, we compared what a company earned in calendar 2022 to what Wall Street expects it to earning in calendar 2023. Because companies follow different fiscal years – many end in December, but some end in June and others in January or September – this approach offer some standardization. This allowed for better comparison to Wall Street’s 2023 estimates for S & P 500 earnings. 1. Wells Fargo Estimated 2023 EPS growth: 50.7% Dividend yield: 2.7% Forward P/E: 9.4 WFC 1Y mountain Wells Fargo’s stock price over the past 12 months. Bank stocks came under pressure Tuesday. However, we like Wells Fargo over the long term, believing the bank’s turnaround efforts under CEO Charlie Scharf will continue to create value. More immediately, management’s expense discipline is poised to support earnings this year, on top of the benefit Wells Fargo receives from higher interest rates. Wells Fargo’s dividend rewards investors for their patience, plus its buyback was restarted this quarter. We have a buy-it-here 1 rating on Wells Fargo. The average price target from analysts covering the stock represents a 20% gain from Tuesday’s close of $44.45 per share. 2. Halliburton Estimated 2023 EPS growth: 41.02% Dividend yield: 1.7% Forward P/E: 12.43 HAL 1Y mountain Halliburton’s stock performance over the past 12 months. Demand for Halliburton’s services is robust following years of underinvestment in drilling capacity, which helps give the company tremendous pricing power to boost profitability. “Our completions calendar is fully booked and pricing continues to improve across all product service lines,” CEO Jeff Miller said on Halliburton’s most recent earnings call, in late January. We’re also fans of Halliburton’s new plan to return at least half of its annual free cash flow back to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. While that strategy is similar to those deployed by the Club’s three other energy stocks — Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD), Coterra Energy (CTRA) and Devon Energy (DVN) — Halliburton is a different kind of company. This makes its earnings relatively less dependent on the price of oil than those three exploration and production (E & P) firms. We have a 2 rating on HAL shares, meaning we’d wait for additional weakness before considering whether to add to our position. The average price target from analysts who cover Halliburton is roughly 31% above Tuesday’s close of $37.85. 3. Cisco Systems Estimated 2023 EPS growth: 14.88% Dividend yield: 3.2% Forward P/E: 12.38 CSCO 1Y mountain Cisco’s stock performance over the past 12 months. Cisco’s sales and profits have topped Wall Street expectations for three quarters in a row, including its most recent report, in mid-February , which was accompanied by a full-year guidance hike for revenue and earnings. However, questions still persist about whether Cisco is just feasting on the sizable backlog accumulated during the Covid pandemic and could run into challenges once it normalizes. With that skepticism about new order growth present, Cisco shares are up less than 1% since the company’s impressive results Feb. 15. We have a 2 rating on the stock. Meanwhile, the average price target from Cisco analysts on Wall Street is about 16% higher than where the stock closed Tuesday at $48.91 per share. 4. Caterpillar Estimated 2023 EPS growth: 14.71% Dividend yield: 2% Forward P/E: 15.5 CAT 1Y mountain Caterpillar’s stock performance over the past 12 months. Like Halliburton, Caterpillar sells into end markets that are prosperous and well-positioned to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Caterpillar, in particular, benefits from Washington’s infrastructure spending bill, which funds projects that need the company’s construction and mining equipment. This demand for Caterpillar’s products should allow the industrial powerhouse to raise prices when necessary, a dynamic that’s good for earnings and on display in its fourth-quarter results . We have a 1 rating on the stock. The average price target from analysts covering the stock implies a 4% gain from Tuesday’s close of $246.14 per share. 5. Morgan Stanley Estimated 2023 EPS growth: 13.84% Dividend yield: 3.2% Forward P/E: 13.3 MS 1Y mountain Morgan Stanley’s stock performance over the past 12 months. Morgan Stanley’s business transformation — from the boom-and-bust world of investment banking into the more stable realm of asset management — is core to our rationale for being shareholders. And, it’s continuing to play out according to plan. We see the bank as a stock to hold for the long term. In addition, Morgan Stanley pays a solid dividend, yielding over 3% annually at current levels, and buys back healthy amounts of stock. That rewards us for our patience. We have a 2 rating on Morgan Stanley shares. The average price target from analysts who cover Morgan Stanley is about 6% above the stock’s closing price of $96.06 on Tuesday. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long WFC, HAL, CSCO, CAT and MS . See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Workers walk towards Halliburton Co. “sand castles” at an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. hydraulic fracturing (fracking) site north of Dacono, Colorado, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014.
Jamie Schwaberow | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Wells Fargo (WFC) and Halliburton (HAL) headline a group of five dividend-paying Club stocks that are expected to post robust earnings growth this year.
A view of offshore oil and gas platform Esther in the Pacific Ocean on January 5, 2025 in Seal Beach, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
President-Elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will reverse President Joe Biden‘s ban on offshore drilling along most of the U.S. coastline as soon as he takes office.
“I’m going to have it revoked on day one,” Trump said at a news conference, though he indicated that reversing the ban might require litigation in court.
Biden announced Monday that he would protect 625 million acres of ocean from offshore oil and gas drilling along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea. The president issued the ban through a provision of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
An order by Trump attempting to reverse the ban will likely end up in court and could ultimately be struck down.
During his first term, Trump tried to issue an executive order to reverse President Barack Obama’s use of the law to protect waters in the Arctic and Atlantic from offshore drilling. A federal court ultimately ruled that Trump’s order was not lawful and reversing the ban would require an act of Congress.
The Republican Party has a majority in both chambers of the new Congress.
Chinese EV Automaker ZEEKR is marking its third consecutive presence on the display floors of CES. During this year’s event, ZEEKR began teasing at least three new models scheduled to launch in 2025, some of which will feature an NVIDIA DRIVE Thor-based smart driver domain controller. In addition to those codenamed models, ZEEKR is also planning to launch another NVIDIA DRIVE Thor-equipped EV called “RT” in the US to be used by robotaxi developer Waymo.
ZEEKR wasted no time touting its latest EV and autonomous driving technology at CES 2025, which kicked off in Las Vegas earlier this week. As noted above, 2025 marks ZEEKR’s third consecutive participation in the annual tech event, which is notable considering the company was founded less than four years ago.
During last year’s event, ZEEKR showcased its 007, which had just launched in China days before. It offers a 540-mile range and a starting price below $30,000. At CES 2023, ZEEKR made its public debut in the US, showcasing its flagship 001 shooting brake and a purpose-built EV designed for robotaxi network Waymo, which we saw up close later that fall.
The Waymo BEV has become known as the ZEEKR RT, which is mentioned alongside several exciting announcements that the Chinese automaker teased last month.
ZEEKR shares plans for new models, plus Waymo BEVs
ZEEKR kicked off CES 2025 today with news of a new domain controller built using NVIDIA’s DRIVE Thor next-generation centralized computer. NVIDIA unveiled DRIVE Thor in the fall of 2022, announcing ZEEKR as its first customer and initial production of vehicles featuring the technology planned for early 2025.
As such, ZEEKR is hailing itself as the first OEM to integrate NVIDIA’s next-gen system-on-chip (SoC) into a domain controller to handle a wide range of smart driving, autonomous scenarios, and parking functions. Per NVIDIA during the DRIVE Thor debut, the computer “achieves up to 2,000 teraflops of performance, unifies intelligent functions — including automated and assisted driving, parking, driver and occupant monitoring, digital instrument cluster, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and rear-seat entertainment — into a single architecture for greater efficiency and lower overall system cost.”
As NVIDIA’s first DRIVE Thor customer, ZEEKR said its domain controller will soon be mass-produced and integrated into a new large SUV model to be launched this year. That SUV will be one of three new BEVs ZEEKR plans to launch in 2025. According to ZEEKR CEO Andy An, those vehicles have been internally codenamed “EX,” “DX,” and “CC.”
In addition to those passenger EVs in the works, ZEEKR shared that its RT van, based on the MIX and explicitly designed as a robotaxi for Waymo, is undergoing real-world testing and is expected to arrive as the world-first mass-produced purpose-built vehicle for autonomous rides.
ZEEKR RT deliveries to Waymo are expected later this year for further testing ahead of a future public robotaxi network launch. If that happens, ZEEKR could become the first Chinese EV brand to enter the US market, although it’s a bit of a loophole.
ZEEKR’s 009 MPV, MIX van, and 001 FR shooting brake are on display at CES at booth #5640 in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Go check them out.
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How about a new EV with your next Amazon order? As the first brand to sell vehicles on Amazon, Hyundai says, “You’re gonna need a bigger cart.” Hyundai is now selling cars directly on Amazon, including popular EVs like the IONIQ 5. Here’s how you can snag one.
How can you buy Hyundai EVs directly on Amazon?
Buying a new Hyundai is now as easy as adding it to your next Amazon order. However, you might need a bigger cart.
Amazon revealed plans to expand into vehicle sales in 2023, starting with Hyundai. After making it official at the 2023 LA Auto Show, Hyundai began selling vehicles on the platform just before the end of 2024.
Buying a new vehicle on Amazon Auto is as easy as buying a new laptop or outfit. You can browse through available Hyundai vehicles near you, secure financing, checkout, and schedule a pick-up time directly using Amazon’s trusted platform.
You can easily find the vehicle you’re looking for with the option to sort by model, trim, color, features, and more. After you find it, you can secure financing, sign the paperwork electronically, and complete the process in just a few clicks.
The best part is the haggle-free pricing. What you see at checkout is the price you will pay. Once finalized, you can pick the day and time to pick up your new ride at a local dealership.
If you have a trade-in, you can get an instant quote by answering a few questions and uploading images of the car. Then, you can apply the credit toward your new vehicle on Amazon Autos. When you go to pick up your new vehicle, the dealership will be ready for it.
Hyundai plans to expand the program by adding more dealers throughout the year and offering more leasing and financing options. On the Amazon Auto website, you can view Hyundai vehicles at participating dealers near you.
You can already find top-selling Hyundai EVs on Amazon Auto, including the updated 2025 IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6. With new models, like the three-row IONIQ 9 rolling out, expect to see more EVs available soon.
The new IONIQ 5 starts at $42,500. With a bigger (84 kWh) battery, the updated model has a range of 318 miles, up from 303 miles in the outgoing IONIQ 5. It also has an NACS port, so it can be charged at Tesla Superchargers.
After kicking off production at its new EV plant in Georgia late last year, Hyundai’s electric vehicles now qualify for the $7,500 EV tax credit for the first time.
For those of you who don’t have access to the program yet, we’ve got you covered. With the new 2025 models rolling out, Hyundai is offering 2024 IONIQ 5 SUVs for next to nothing while they are still in stock. You can use our links below to find the best deals on Hyundai EV models in your area.
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