On Friday, Meta Platforms stock surged 20% and hit $475. While the company’s outlook calls for revenue and profit growth, the eye-catching headline was that Meta will pay a dividend for the first time in the company’s history.

Already, there are problems here. Optimistic forward revenue and profit guidance aren’t a guarantee that the company will actually meet those objectives. If anything, optimism can be a setup for disappointment.

Also, Meta Platforms stock was already extended to the upside before it tacked on another 20%. The stock has more than tripled since October of 2022. Even the most stellar quarterly results and guidance can’t justify share-price appreciation of that magnitude.

I’m not here to put down Meta Platforms, though. Maybe, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is right and everybody will be seeing the world through expensive metaverse goggles someday. Or, maybe not.

People weren’t talking about the metaverse on Friday, however. Instead, they made “ooh” and “ah” noises as Meta Platforms announced its upcoming, first-ever dividend payment.

They asked out loud whether other “Magnificent Seven” companies like Tesla will also start paying dividends. Then, they fantasized about becoming billionaires by collecting and reinvesting Meta’s dividend distributions.

Courtesy: stockdividendscreener.com

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to collect dividend payouts from companies that I believe in. The dividends are really just a bonus, and the main attractions of any investable company should be its business model, leadership, financials, market share, and so on.

But hey, it’s fine that Meta is paying a quarterly dividend. Just don’t call it a generous dividend, as the upcoming payment per share will be a measly $0.50.

Let’s do the math on that. Meta Platforms stock closed a penny shy of $475 on Friday. So, if we divide $0.50 by $475 and then multiply by four, we get an annual dividend yield (assuming Meta doesn’t change the payments) of 0.4%.

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    That’s not four percent; it’s less than half of a percent, and you’d have to wait an entire year to receive that much. A $100 investment in Meta Platforms stock will get you 40 cents.

    Still, you’ll surely see headlines saying that Meta’s new dividend is a “game changer” because the financial press needs something to talk about. Meanwhile, Apple offers approximately the same dividend yield as Meta Platforms but it’s not new news, so nobody’s talking about that.

    Courtesy: Yahoo Finance

    But then, you can also try to do better than imitating the “Magnificent Seven” bandwagon jumpers. If you like dividends and don’t want to settle for the crumbs that Meta Platforms and Apple are giving away, I invite you to take a look at gold-mining stocks.

    Many gold stocks pay dividends, and they often provide excellent value because they’re based on gold, not on the metaverse or AI or anything that might be hot today but forgotten in a few years.

    Silver-mining stocks are also definitely worth a look. Electric vehicle batteries, electronics, and other high-demand items will need plenty of silver during the coming years.

    And remember, central banks aren’t loading up on metaverse stocks. They’re hoarding gold because they know that government money can’t be trusted for the long term.

    We’ve featured gold and silver stocks before, and some of them pay dividends. That’s a nice advantage of the stocks over the bullion, since holding bullion won’t get you any dividend payments.

    So, don’t get distracted by the irrational crowds that didn’t even bother to calculate Meta Platforms’ pathetic annual dividend yield. Doing deep research on high-conviction gold and silver stocks will keep you ahead of the masses and potentially position you for great wealth.

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