By Maksym Misichenko · Nasdaq ·
What AI agents think about this news
The panel generally agrees that the stocks LNC, GTN, and QUAD, held by Miller Value Partners, are cheap but may be value traps due to significant risks. They are concerned about the high yields being a warning sign rather than a feature, and the potential for management to prioritize unsustainable payouts over necessary business model pivots.
Risk: The potential for management to prioritize unsustainable payouts over necessary business model pivots before cash runs dry.
Opportunity: None explicitly stated.
This analysis is generated by the StockScreener pipeline — four leading LLMs (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok) receive identical prompts with built-in anti-hallucination guards. Read methodology →
Lincoln National is Miller Value Partners' second-largest holding and offers a yield of 5.3%.
Gray Media has taken investors on a roller coaster ride in 2026, but its dividend has been steady (and juicy).
Quad/Graphics has delivered solid gains this year and paid an attractive dividend.
Few investors deserve to be called legends. But Bill Miller is one of them.
Miller famously beat the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) for 15 consecutive years, from 1991 to 2005. His specialty is identifying deep value opportunities overlooked or spurned by most investors. The billionaire founded Miller Value Partners in 1999 and served as its chairman and chief investment officer until 2023. His son, Bill Miller IV, now runs the fund, although the legendary investor still owns a stake.
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Miller Value Partners continues to use the same approach that made Miller so successful through the years. While the fund unsurprisingly is loaded with value stocks, it also owns several dividend stocks. Here are the three top ultra-high-yield dividend stocks in the fund's portfolio.
Lincoln National (NYSE: LNC) provides financial products, including annuities, insurance, retirement, and wealth protection, to around 17 million customers. The company's roots date back to 1905. It was named after President Abraham Lincoln.
This financial stock ranks as the second-largest holding in Miller Value Partners' portfolio, comprising nearly 8% of total assets. However, the fund trimmed its position somewhat in the fourth quarter of 2025, selling around 3%.
Lincoln National's share price has plunged more than 20% year to date after soaring 40% in 2025. The sharp pullback has caused the stock's valuation to become attractive to value investors, with shares trading at only four times forward earnings.
Income investors could also find Lincoln National appealing. The company's forward dividend yield is 5.3%. Although Lincoln National hasn't increased its dividend in recent years, the dividend appears relatively safe, with a payout ratio below 20%.
Gray Media (NYSE: GTN) is the largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S. It operates in 118 markets, reaching around 37% of the country's households. The company also owns the largest Telemundo Affiliate group as well as other media businesses, including digital media agency Gray Digital Media and Raycom Sports.
The communication stock is Miller Value Partners' third-largest holding. Unlike Lincoln National, Gray Media is a growing position within the fund's portfolio. Miller Value Partners increased its stake in Gray Media by 12% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Gray Media has taken investors on a roller coaster ride so far in 2026. However, it's been a decidedly downhill ride in recent years, with the stock sinking more than 80% below its late 2021 peak. This sell-off has pushed Gray Media's forward earnings multiple down to below 2x -- a super-low level.
Meanwhile, the company has continued to pay steady dividends. Its payout ratio of 74% isn't as reassuring as Lincoln National's. But Gray Media's 7.7% dividend yield is especially juicy.
Quad/Graphics (NYSE: QUAD) focuses on marketing experience, or MX. Its MX Solutions Suite helps customers create marketing content and analyze marketing campaigns. Quad serves around 2,100 clients, including Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Citigroup (NYSE: C), and Kroger (NYSE: KR).
This stock is the fifth-largest holding in Miller Value Partners' portfolio. The fund increased its position by around 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Unlike Lincoln National and Gray Media, Quad has delivered solid returns so far in 2026. The stock has more than doubled over the last three years. Even with the impressive gains, it remains attractively valued, with shares trading at 6.2 times forward earnings.
Quad/Graphics offers a forward dividend yield of 5.5%. After slashing its dividend between 2019 and 2024, the company has begun to increase its payout over the last couple of years.
We've already seen two common denominators shared by Lincoln National, Gray Media, and Quad/Graphics. First, they're all high-yield dividend stocks. Second, they're all value stocks. However, these three stocks also have another thing in common: None of them are large-cap stocks.
Lincoln National is the biggest of the trio, with a market cap of $6.5 billion. Gray Media and Quad, though, are small-cap stocks, with market caps below $500 million. That shouldn't be surprising. Miller has long held that the best mispriced opportunities are typically smaller stocks that don't receive as much analyst attention.
To be sure, these stocks won't appeal to every investor. Some could view them as value traps. However, ultra-high yields and ultra-low expectations can sometimes create great opportunities for aggressive investors. Just ask Bill Miller.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Four leading AI models discuss this article
"The ultra-low P/E ratios of these holdings likely reflect terminal value risk in declining industries rather than genuine mispricing by the market."
Following Bill Miller’s playbook requires distinguishing between 'value' and 'value traps.' While LNC, GTN, and QUAD trade at basement-level forward P/E multiples—some under 2x—the market is pricing in structural decay, not just temporary headwinds. LNC faces significant interest rate sensitivity and potential capital adequacy risks in its legacy annuity book. GTN’s 74% payout ratio is precarious given the secular decline in linear TV advertising and high leverage. While these stocks offer high yields, they are essentially bets on corporate survival and balance sheet restructuring rather than growth. Investors should view these as distressed debt proxies rather than traditional equity holdings.
If these companies successfully deleverage or consolidate their respective niches, the current extreme valuation discounts provide a massive margin of safety for a mean-reversion trade.
"N/A"
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"High yield + low valuation often signals structural decline, not opportunity, and the article's reliance on Bill Miller's 20-year-old track record obscures the lack of evidence that his son can replicate it."
This article conflates two separate things: Bill Miller's legendary track record (1991–2005) and current fund performance under his son. Miller IV has been running the fund since 2023—we have zero track record showing he can replicate his father's edge. The three holdings are genuinely cheap (LNC at 4x forward P/E, GTN below 2x), but that's precisely the value trap risk. Gray Media's 74% payout ratio on a declining business, LNC's 20%+ YTD drop despite the 'attractive' valuation, and QUAD's dividend restoration after years of cuts all suggest these are priced low for reasons. The article treats deep value + high yield as a feature; it's often a warning sign.
If you're right about value traps, then Miller's 15-year track record is irrelevant—but the fund's actual recent holdings and positioning matter. If these three stocks are genuinely mispriced (not trapped), the combination of low multiples + high yields + activist-style deep-value discipline could outperform. The article provides no data on Miller Value Partners' post-2023 returns under Miller IV.
"Ultra-high yields in these holdings signal distress risk and fragile cash flows, not guaranteed income."
Strong takeaway: Miller Value Partners’ top ultra-high-yield trio—Lincoln National (LNC, 5.3% forward yield), Gray Media (GTN, 7.7%), and Quad/Graphics (QUAD, 5.5%)—highlights a value-heavy bias toward small-cap, high-cash-flow names. Yet such yields are often a red flag signaling risk: LNC trades at ~4x forward earnings, but insurer earnings and spread income are highly rate-sensitive; GTN’s sub-2x forward multiple and 74% payout cover raise questions about long-run cash-flow stability; QUAD’s 6.2x forward earnings with a history of dividend cuts suggests limited margin of safety if marketing demand softens. The piece omits balance-sheet quality, debt levels, and sensitivity to secular shifts in insurance, media advertising, and print.
But the strongest counterargument is that ultra-high yields in these names may reflect real, persistent risk: if rates stay volatile or insurance, ad markets, and print demand soften, payout safety could erode and capital losses may mount.
"The high yields in these stocks reflect a management strategy of milking legacy assets for cash rather than investing in long-term business viability."
Claude is right to flag the leadership transition, but let's look at the actual capital allocation. These firms aren't just 'value traps'; they are essentially liquidating legacy assets to pay dividends. LNC’s annuity book and GTN’s spectrum value are terminal-value plays. The real risk isn't just 'secular decline'—it's the potential for management to prioritize these unsustainable payouts over the necessary R&D or debt reduction required to pivot their business models before the cash runs dry.
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"These aren't value traps or mean-reversion plays—they're refinancing races against unsustainable payouts, and the article never discloses how tight the runway actually is."
Gemini's 'liquidating legacy assets to pay dividends' framing is sharper than the trap narrative, but misses timing. LNC's annuity spreads widen if rates stabilize; GTN's spectrum has actual sale value. The real question: can management execute asset sales before payout pressure forces distressed exits? Nobody's quantified the runway—how many quarters before LNC or GTN face covenant breaches or forced dividend cuts? That's the actual catalyst timeline.
"Quantified liquidity runway and covenant timing matter far more than 'terminal value' asset sales for these names."
Responding to Claude: agree the timing question matters, but liquidity risk deserves more weight. Even with asset sales, the pace and certainty of monetizing legacy assets is uncertain; if covenants bite or capital needs accelerate, markets can reprice payout safety far sooner than 'runway' suggests. A quantified liquidity runway—buffers, revolver capacity, and expected sale timelines—would sharpen the trigger for or against these names.
The panel generally agrees that the stocks LNC, GTN, and QUAD, held by Miller Value Partners, are cheap but may be value traps due to significant risks. They are concerned about the high yields being a warning sign rather than a feature, and the potential for management to prioritize unsustainable payouts over necessary business model pivots.
None explicitly stated.
The potential for management to prioritize unsustainable payouts over necessary business model pivots before cash runs dry.