"Our goal is helping investors grow their capital and income base from which to derive cash for their current and future needs," notes dividend expert Kelley Wright.

The editor of Investment Quality Trends explains, "To that end we believe that high-quality stocks purchased at historically low-price-to-high-yield offers the best potential for downside protection and upside appreciation. Our Timely Ten list represents our current top ideas.

Continue reading The Timely Ten: Blue Chip Dividends

The Timely Ten: Blue Chip Dividends originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Home Depot Announces $1 Billion Stock Buyback

Home Depot Announces $1 Billion Stock Buyback originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Spring has officially begun, and now may be the time to consider some investments that could add a little "spring" to your portfolio.

Topping the list are companies like Lowe's (LOW) and Home Depot (HD). They stand to benefit from the nicer weather as people head outdoors to work on the garden, plant new beds, maintain the lawn, and take care of home improvements.

Continue reading Investments to Put Some 'Spring' into Your Step

Investments to Put Some 'Spring' into Your Step originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Is Home Depot Headed to $45 and Beyond?

Is Home Depot Headed to $45 and Beyond? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What did you think of Home Depot's (HD) earnings report? I rather enjoyed it. And I think the future may be bright for the retailer and arch enemy of Lowe's (LOW).

According to TheStreet.com, net income calculated out to 36 cents per share for the fourth quarter. This was five pennies better than the overall estimate. Same-store sales experienced an increase of 3.9%. And management's forecast for the full fiscal year was upgraded.

Continue reading Home Depot: Looking Good?

Home Depot: Looking Good? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Barnes & Noble, the Gap, RadioShack, and Sears -- that may sound like the lineup at the local mall, but in fact they are just a few of the retailers scheduled to step into the earnings spotlight this week. Following last week's disappointing January retail sales numbers from the Commerce Department but strong fourth-quarter reports from Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and Nordstrom (JWN), the coming week will offer plenty more data on the sector for investors to mull over.

Walmart

Bentonville-based Walmart (WMT) offered free holiday shipping, closed its Moscow office and named a chief merchandising officer during its fourth quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings for that period to come to $1.31 per share, up from $1.17 in the same quarter of last year. The world's largest retailer also is expected to post revenues of $117.7 billion for the three months that ended in January. That's 3.5% more than a year earlier.

Continue reading Week in Preview: Walmart, Home Depot and More Retail Earnings

Week in Preview: Walmart, Home Depot and More Retail Earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Home Depot Hiring 60,000 Employees

Home Depot Hiring 60,000 Employees originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• Home Depot (HD) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Delta Air Lines (DAL) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Heico (HEI) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• MB Financial (MBFI) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Quest Diagnostics (DGX) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• Oshkosh (OSK) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• Volterra (VLTR) and Silicon Laboratories (SLAB) to buy from neutral at Roth Capital.
• Ascena Retail Group (ASNA) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Cytec Industries (CYT) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: DAL, CIEN, DGX, HD, IMAX, LOW, OSK, PENN, RDS.A, SWK ...

Analyst Calls: DAL, CIEN, DGX, HD, IMAX, LOW, OSK, PENN, RDS.A, SWK ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This is the fifth year that I am posting my stock picks for the year. There is a lot of foolishness in doing so because each year that I have made such suggestions, including 2009 when I owned all of the picks, it is assumed that I would hold all of the positions without responding to market conditions, or changes in the specific company. No adding to, or cutting a position. This is not the real world.

It is not possible for everything to remain static. For example, you might find that you hold a stock that made a great run through three quarters, beyond your wildest expectations, and decide it has passed a point where the metrics cannot support anything close to the price. Under normal circumstances you might sell it, except you cannot. By the end of the year the profit you might have realized fades away and you end up reporting on something that is not a true measure of your objective strategy. Nevertheless, once again I will stick with this approach because this seems to be how its done in every publication's annual picks. This year there are eleven.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2011 Stock Picks -- 5 of 11

Chasing Value: 2011 Stock Picks -- 5 of 11 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The year 2010 has come and gone and my results are in. This is my fourth annual stock results to be reported on BlogginStocks, so something of a track record is starting to form. This past year ended with a modest improvement over the unmanaged Standard & Poors 500 index

The original story, Chasing Value: 10 Stock Picks for 2010, took readers through a review of many candidates, concluding with the ten picks, using prices from Dec. 28, 2009.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 Final Review -- Winners and Losers

Chasing Value: 2010 Final Review -- Winners and Losers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As outlined in September, the better days and quarters have started to arrive for Home Depot (HD), first discussed on May 20, 2009, at a price of $23.83, and I still like the shares here.

The shares have vectored north nicely in the past three months, from about $26 to current levels near $35.

Look for HD to post a 3.0% to 3.3% revenue increase in FY2012, after a 3.5% to 4.0% rise in FY2011, on better international store performance, and about 10 net new stores opened. U.S. store traffic will continue to gradually improve, but big-ticket remodeling revenue should remain sluggish through at least mid-2011 in today's "frugal consumer" U.S. market.

Continue reading Is Home Depot Still Undervalued at $35?

Is Home Depot Still Undervalued at $35? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• Walgreen (WAG) and Triumph Group (TGI) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Focus Media (FMCN) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Home Depot (HD) to outperform from market perform at FBR Capital.
• Arbitron (ARB) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Waddell & Reed (WDR) and Legg Mason (LM) to overweight from equal weight, and Janus Capital (JNS) to overweight from underweight, at Barclays.
• Central Euro Media (CETV) to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• GenOn Energy (GEN) and Ntelos (NTLS) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• Cooper Tire (CTB) to buy from neutral and Goodyear Tire (GT) to buy from underperform at BofA/Merrill.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: AOL, FMCN, GT, HD, JNJ, JNS, LOW, QCOM, RY, UA, WAG ...

Analyst Calls: AOL, FMCN, GT, HD, JNJ, JNS, LOW, QCOM, RY, UA, WAG ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Home Prices Are About to Bottom" was the headline for the Barron's cover story the week of July 14, 2008. The story explained that the housing market should level off in many areas of the country by the end of the year.

I have made some equally unfortunate prognostications in my tenure at BloggingStocks, so my purpose is not to poke fun at Barron's but to point out that here we are, over two years later, and it is still debatable whether the housing market has bottomed out.

Continue reading Chasing Value: "Home Prices Are About to Bottom"

Chasing Value: "Home Prices Are About to Bottom" originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week, Macy's (M) and JCPenney (JCP) kicked off the retail earnings season by posting better-than-expected earnings for the most recent quarter. Many more quarterly reports from retailers are due this week, and by and large expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are high.

Walmart (WMT), the king of retailers, is expected to buck the trend, though. Analysts anticipate that the Bentonville-based company will report that its third-quarter earnings grew only 6.7% year-over-year to 90 cents per share. During the three months that ended in October, Walmart announced an acquisition in South Africa and kicked-off the holiday shopping season, and revenue for that period is predicted to have risen 3.0% to $102.4 billion. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, analysts so far expect sequential and year-over-year growth of both earnings and revenue. Walmart results have not fallen short of consensus estimates in the past five quarters.

Continue reading Week in Preview: Retailers Offer Up Earnings (WMT, ANF, LOW, TGT)

Week in Preview: Retailers Offer Up Earnings (WMT, ANF, LOW, TGT) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Citigroup (C) to conviction buy from buy, Principal Financial (PFG) to buy from neutral, and Stancorp Financial (SFG) and Hartford Financial (HIG) to neutral from sell.
• JetBlue (JBLU) was upgraded to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Barclays upgraded Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Carnival (CCL) upgraded to overweight from equal weight.
• Hollysys Automation (HOLI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Roth Capital.
• RBC Capital upgraded Alliance Data Systems (ADS) to outperform from sector perform.
• RRI Energy (RRI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Citigroup.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: ALTR, ATHN, C, CCL, HD, JBLU, LUV, MSFT, RCL ...

Analyst Calls: ALTR, ATHN, C, CCL, HD, JBLU, LUV, MSFT, RCL ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chasing Value: 2010 Picks Q3 Update -- ADM, BRK, EZPW, GE, HD

Chasing Value: 2010 Picks Q3 Update -- ADM, BRK, EZPW, GE, HD originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Is Home Depot's Uptrend Genuine?

Is Home Depot's Uptrend Genuine? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Home Depot (HD), the main rival of Lowe's (LOW), closed higher yesterday by 3.4%, finishing out the session at a price of $28.31. It has a ways to go before reaching the 52-week high of $37.03. Will investors push the stock to that level after the second-quarter report?

I'm not sure that will happen anytime soon, but the data wasn't so bad. Earnings per share grew 9% to 72 cents -- a penny ahead of expectations. Same-store sales expanded by 1.7%.

Continue reading Home Depot Earnings Show Increase in Q2 Income

Home Depot Earnings Show Increase in Q2 Income originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Lowe's Companies Inc. (LOW), the nation's number two home improvement superstore chain, is scheduled to discuss its second-quarter 2010 financial results Monday, August 16, in a conference call beginning at 9:00 AM (ET) hosted by CEO Robert A. Niblock and CFO Robert F. Hull, Jr. You can catch a live webcast at the Lowe's website.

During the three months that ended in July, Lowe's increased its quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect this Mooresville, N.C.-based company to report earnings of $0.59 per share, up from $0.54 per share in the year-ago period. Its revenue is expected to have risen 4.9% from a year ago to $14.5 billion.

Continue reading Lowe's Earnings Preview: Can Another Beat Lift Shares?

Lowe's Earnings Preview: Can Another Beat Lift Shares? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Analyst Upgrades

• Sterne Agee upgraded Wynn Resorts (WYNN) to buy from neutral and has a $115 price target on the stock. The firm believes Encore Macau will drive further share gains near-term.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded PPL Corp. (PPL) to buy from hold and said the equity offering and the the stipulation reached in the KY utilities' rate cases removes important overhangs. The firm has a $30 price target on the stock.
• UBS upgraded CarMax (KMX) to buy from neutral based on forecasts for higher consumer forecast income and positive used car trends. The firm has a $28 target on the stock.
• Aeropostale (ARO) was upgraded to outperform from underperform at Oppenheimer.
• Cardinal Financial (CFNL) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Baird.
• Pinnacle West (PNW) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.

Continue reading Analyst Calls: AAPL, CP, CSCO, GENZ, HD, KMX, LOW, MSFT, PPL, SI, WTNY, WYNN ...

Analyst Calls: AAPL, CP, CSCO, GENZ, HD, KMX, LOW, MSFT, PPL, SI, WTNY, WYNN ... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.