Savings Experiment: Snow Removal
The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.
"My favorite conservative idea for 2008 is Apollo Investment Co. (NASDAQ: AINV)," says Adrian Day, editor of The Global Analyst.
"The company makes investments of debt and equity to medium-sized businesses, and a Regulated Investment Co. pays out most of its net income in dividends. Like other RICs, the dividends tend to be high and growing, but also like other RICs, it was caught up in the market turbulence of the past few months affecting all finance companies.
"Apollo Investment, the public arm of the eponymous New York private equity firm, came out just over three years ago. It is large ($2.2 billion market cap), financially conservative, and tends to do larger deals than most similar outfits.
"Its average investment is now just over $47 million, and as the fund grows, this should get larger still. It has investments in 67 companies, just over half of which is in sub debt.
"The Apollo people, while not absolute value investors, do undertake tough due diligence and always run downside scenarios on all potential investments to see if the businesses can withstand a recessionary environment.
"This is an excellent time to buy the stock. Despite a good quarter, the headline earnings number was down, following a secondary equity raising, and that led to some misguided selling. Their loss is our gain.
"The stock is barely above NAV ($18.44) with a prospective yield of 11.2%. Though there may not be much growth in the near term, the dividend is safe in our judgment and longer-term growth is assured."
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
