Two stocks for consideration this morning.

If one is looking for a safe harbor stock that pays an above average dividend one could hardly go wrong with National Retail Properties. We continue to admire this company for many things, they raise their dividend annually and have done so for something like 20 plus years, they have high occupancy now above 97%, and they just keep reporting good earnings.  Add in that the triple net lease structure is good for those who lose sleep over real estate investments. 

NNN is the symbol and we will remind readers that during all the economic turmoil the share price has bounced back to above previous levels. This company protects your capital and increases your income what is not to like. Today they reported another solid quarter with above consensus earnings and more good news on leasing to new tenants. 

Now NNN is fully valued paying a 5.6% dividend currently. Note that dividend is not qualified so you pay full tax rate since NNN is a reit. However if you have a long term view NNN could be a good addition to your holdings. We have maintained a $25 put on this stock for as long as the fund as been in existence and never lost a dime. 

Another stock on our watch list raised it's dividend yesterday that being BP.  We continue to believe this company is worth consideration as it moves past the Gulf incident and into more normalized operations. The $20 billion dollars set aside now more and more look to be adequate for payments and BP might get some of that back. The quarterly report yesterday was encouraging.

 One final hurdle here is the pending consideration of a Federal Government lawsuit over "environmental damages". These too have been much less than the press wanted readers to believe.  The hurdle here is if Obama wants to open up this healing wound that might actually be more trouble to him that BP. Environmental leaders want some more skin, however the prevailing wisdom is that the Federal Government which took over management of the cleanup made a mess of things and shares more blame now than BP. So Obama having fed Keystone to the left wing fanatics might just take a hike on this lawsuit. 

Back to the dividend. Once all this lawsuit business gets resolved you can expect BP to hike it's dividend considerably. There is pressure in the UK to do so with so many pensioners having BP as a income producer.  With that pressure and the need for tax money in the UK this will come sooner rather than later so smart investors might want to take a position now before the dividend hike and the expected increase in share price.  Yes, there is risk, but also reward for those willing to take the plunge. 

We own options on NNN. We currently have no position in BP.