Yesterday's historic announcement by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) that it has decided to cut the official cash rate by 0.25% to a record low of 1.5% sent the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) sharply lower.
At the close of Tuesday's trading session, the index had declined 0.8% to 5,540 points. Unsurprisingly, the selloff in stocks was widespread with 14 of the top 20 shares all finishing lower including all of the "Big Four" banks.
At the smaller end of the market there were also many decliners. The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries (Index: ^AXSO) (ASX: XSO) finished 1.3% lower.
While you might expect me to now suggest three small caps which fell and now offer even more attractive dividend yields, in this instance I've actually identified three stocks which all bucked the trend and rose yesterday!
Here are three constituents of the Small Ords which caught my eye and perhaps the eye of the market too given they traded higher. All three stocks appear to be offering attractive dividend yields in a low return environment.
National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR) is a leading owner and operator of self-storage centres under the well-known brand of National Storage. Having recently completed a major acquisition the group now boasts an enlarged network of 105 centres. As a market leader in what would appear to be a defensive sector, its dividend payments should be predictable.
With the group forecast to pay fully franked dividends totalling 9.2 cents per share (cps) in financial year (FY) 2017, investors acquiring shares today are buying on a prospective yield of 5.7%.
WPP Aunz Ltd (ASX: WPP) is a leading marketing and communications company that operates under a large number of well-known advertising agency brands. WPP is exposed to the media cycle which does create earnings (and potentially dividend) risk, but the diversity of its business also provides some protection.
Based on estimates for 2016 (WPP operates on a calendar year basis), the stock is trading on a fully franked yield of 4.7%.
Retail Food Group Limited (ASX: RFG) owns the master franchise systems for a range of fast food brands including Donut King, Gloria Jean's Coffee and Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar. Given the franchise business model operations of Retail Food Group, its earnings enjoy a degree of protection from any decline in consumer sentiment.
With a dividend of 30 cents per share forecast to be maintained in FY 2017, the stock currently has a potential yield of 5.1% fully franked.
(Source: CommSec)
