I’d forgotten about these 2 FTSE income stocks. Should I buy them now?

Sales and marketing company DCC (LSE: DCC) is not the best stock to look at FTSE 100but that is no reason for me to ignore everything.

I just spent 10 minutes on the website playing catch-up without quite getting a handle on its operation. I just learned that the energy, health and technology section “enabling people and businesses to grow and thrive”. I guess that’s marketing for you.

Rising dividends

DCC’s share price has had a tough time of late, down 29.66% in one year and 32.31% in five years. But that might be fine with me, as it makes the stock trade at just 10.6 times earnings.

That’s comfortably below the FTSE 100’s forward PE of 13.2 for 2023, although not as cheap as some of my favorite dividend stocks. Legal & General Groupfor example, trading at only 7.49 times earned, while Barratt’s Development even lower at 5.69 times.

L&G and Barratt also offer higher yields, at 7.28% and 7.49% respectively. DCC has a solid yield of 3.9%, but the shareholder payout is already guaranteed 2.4 times by earnings and with a forecast of 4.1%, there is more to come.

The recent dividend history is impressive, as it has increased for five years in a row, rising from 122.98p per share in 2018 to 175.78p at the end of the year.

Last week’s interim statement included Q3 group operating profit in line with expectations and ahead of last year, which management labeled “good performance due to challenging macro environment”.

Struggles in health and beauty solutions, where customers continued to reduce inventory levels, were offset by stronger technology performance in North America.

Net debt has increased from £54m to £782m recently, but mostly due to acquisitions, which shows confidence in the future. After recession fears eased, the future could look brighter. Wafer’s thin operating margin of 2.6% is worrying, but its current low price and solid dividend history are tempting. I want to buy it today before the recovery but due to lack of cash I will keep it on the watch list.

Precious metals opportunity?

Investors in gold and silver mines Fresno (LSE: FRES) enjoyed a better year. This stock price increased by 25.17% during the period. But this follows a long spell of underperformance and the stock is still trading 35.83% lower than it was five years ago.

The Mexico-focused miner has had a hot start to 2023. It is down 11.86% year to date, while the FTSE 100 has hit an all-time high. Investors have slowly lost faith after years of operational problems and declining guidance.

Precious metal miners aren’t the only ones struggling this year. Centamine and Mining Business may have been underwhelmed as investors play recovery instead. But Fresnillo has a big opportunity. You see, silver is a key component in renewable energy, off-grid energy storage, and EV chargers. So a new problem can make a good entry point.

It is more expensive than DCC, trading at 16.5 times earnings, and has a history of up and down dividends. Today it yields 3.7%, covered 1.7 times. Management says 2023 silver and gold production looks positive. I would buy it, but only with a minimum 10 year view. I’m struggling to get too excited about this, to be honest. So, for now, this is my watch list.