dividends posts
Posted Jul 9th 2009 3:20PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: International markets, Market matters, Diageo plc (DEO), Chevron Corp (CVX), Verizon Communications (VZ), BHP Billiton Ltd ADR (BHP), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Serious Money, Commodities, Oil, Anglo Amer ADR (AAUK), Stocks to Buy, Southern Company (SO), Annaly Capital Management (NLY), Williams Companies (WMB), Olin Corp. (OLN)

In a race, when the yellow caution flag is out drivers are prohibited from advancing their position, and are subject to penalty.
In the stock market no such rule applies. When the caution flag goes up it is a sign you may be nearing an opportunity to advance your position, and it would be foolish not to do so. I think the market has definitely had the caution flag up the last two weeks as we enter earnings season.
I have written several
articles regarding watch-lists encouraging our readers to be prepared for buying opportunities, and as I look at my watch-list it appears that many stocks are nearing prices that would make it attractive to add to my position.
Continue reading Serious Money: Not cheating -- market waving the caution flag
Posted Jul 7th 2009 3:40PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: BHP Billiton Ltd ADR (BHP), Serious Money, Commodities, S and P 500, Stocks to Buy, Southern Company (SO), Raytheon Company (RTN), Best Stocks for 2009

After finding
three stocks yesterday that were a good bet to beat the the S&P 500 index going forward, I decided to pursue this notion further. Each of yesterday's stocks was in a different industry that will have strong recurring revenue and pays a dividend; energy, food and booze.
Today's three stocks are in diversified mining, electric power utilities and high-tech defense. Going back ten years, they have all trounced the index and I'm betting they will continue to do so.
Continue reading Serious Money: Three more stocks that beat the market: BHP, RTN, SO
Posted Jul 7th 2009 2:40PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: Altria Group (MO), Verizon Communications (VZ), Duke Energy (DUK), Loews Corporation (L), Boardwalk Partners (BWP), Annaly Capital Management (NLY), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP)

The following list of solid dividend payers are not likely to get anyone excited about future growth prospects like some small cap tech company with a hot IPO, but in these uncertain times being able to diversify into a reliable dividend paying stock might work while you ride out the economic storm.
Bank money market accounts, CD's and treasuries are not all that compelling right now. While it is wise to keep some cash handy in these places, you need not put all your resources there.
Earlier today my colleague Steven Halpern posted a story on
the safest dividend payer in the DJIA and
Verizon Communications (NYSE:
VZ)
paying 6.1% was his conclusion. I recently posted about this stock pointing out the benefits of the communications companies, see:
Chasing Value: AT&T and VZ, high yield plus safetyIt is to be expected that a utility would show up on the list, given the strong recurring revenue and cash-flow and
Duke Energy (NYSE:
DUK)
paying 6.39% is that company. I have written many positive posts about Duke and my view has not changed.
Continue reading Serious Money: Six stocks paying over 6% yields: VZ, DUK, MO, KMP, BWP, NLY
Posted Jul 6th 2009 5:20PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: Diageo plc (DEO), Chevron Corp (CVX), General Mills (GIS), Serious Money, S and P 500, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2009

Despite what you here from almost all quarters about the market dropping ten percent or so, in what is deemed a bear market correction of our recent bear market rally, I will continue to buy into this market. Of course I will be selective, and as always be thinking long term. This has helped me substantially over the past ten months
beating the market by a huge margin.Keeping this in mind I examined my watch list for candidates that have been long term winners, and consistently beat the overall market using the Standard & Poors 500 index for comparison. The volatility in the market is certain to produce more buying opportunities.
Continue reading Serious Money: Three stocks that beat the market
Posted Jul 2nd 2009 6:00PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, General Electric (GE), Diageo plc (DEO), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Chasing Value, Commodities, Anglo Amer ADR (AAUK), S and P 500, DJIA, Stocks to Buy, Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG), NASDAQ, Annaly Capital Management (NLY), Best Stocks for 2009, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), EZCORP (EZPW)
The second quarter is now behind us and for the most part it was a positive one in terms of the market pushing higher almost 40%. This is the second review of my 2009 stock picks through June 30 (see: Chasing Value: 9 picks for 2009 -- APC, GE, ISRG, WFC and more). There was a lot of talk about green shoots this past quarter as Wall Street was looking for any small bit of optimistic data to support the market.
The federal printing presses continued to run at full speed pushing the dollar lower and oil prices higher. While the feds were printing money to cover their deficits, the States do not have that same luxury and many of them are having trouble balancing their budgets to the tune of billions of dollars.
Continue reading Chasing Value: 2009 picks 731% better than S&P -- 2nd quarter review
Posted Jun 30th 2009 5:00PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, General Mills (GIS)
Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS), the largest maker of breakfast cereal in the U.S., is scheduled to discuss its fiscal 2009 fourth-quarter and full-year results tomorrow morning in a conference call at 8:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.
For the quarter in which General Mills sold part of its frozen bread dough business and introduced additional gluten-free cereals, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the food maker to report earnings of $0.80 per share, which is 8.8% higher than in the same period of the previous year. Revenue for the quarter is expected to be 6.4% higher to $3.7 billion. The company, whose brands also include Pillsbury, Green Giant, and Haagen-Dazs, topped earnings estimates in four of the five past quarters, but fell short by 8 cents per share in the third quarter.
Continue reading Earnings preview: General Mills expected to profit from stay-at-home diners
Posted Jun 30th 2009 12:00PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: Rants and raves, United Parcel'B' (UPS), Options, Chasing Value, Stocks to Buy, Best Stocks for 2009
For those of you who are able to trade options, I have been writing more and more about naked puts, "selling to open" stock options that I have been doing all year with great returns due to an overabundance of fear.
Yesterday I reviewed one example in Chasing Value: GE -- maybe not eating out of trash cans after all, and today I review some of my favorite ways to make money and improve my portfolio.
Let me start with United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS), a company with a great balance sheet, strong management, and trading 29% off its 52-week high, about where I sold it last year. I bought it earlier this year at the bargain basement price of $44, and now wished I had bought more.
Continue reading Chasing Value: Favorite trades -- UPS
Posted Jun 29th 2009 2:10PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP)

According to
reports, both
PepsiCo (NYSE:
PEP) and
Pepsi Bottling Group (NYSE:
PBG) received an upgrade from Stifel Nicolaus. Both are now placed in the "buy" category. I'm sure the companies are happy to be away from the depressing "hold" moniker. The price targets on Pepsi and Pepsi Bottling Group are $64 and $37, respectively. As of this writing, Pepsi was priced at $54.82 while Pepsi Bottling Group's last bid was $33.71.
As can be seen, if Stifel Nicolaus turns out to be right, then traders might have a winning transaction on their hands. But one thing that must be remembered is the arbitrage game going on here. Pepsi wants to buy Pepsi Bottling Group. The latter is, of course, arguing for a higher purchase price.
Continue reading PepsiCo's upgrade -- should you buy?
Posted Jun 25th 2009 3:50PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, Campbell Soup (CPB), Kellogg Co (K), ConAgra Foods (CAG), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT)

Food processor
ConAgra (NYSE:
CAG), whose products share space at the supermarket with
Kraft (NYSE:
KFT),
Kellogg (NYSE:
K), and
Campbell Soup (NYSE:
CPB), is down in Thursday's afternoon trading by over 6% as I write this. The company released earnings for the fourth quarter earlier this morning. Sales increased 8% according to the
press release. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations came in at 41 cents per diluted share. This result benefited from an extra week.
The per-share profit compared very favorably to the 18 cents earned in last year's similar quarter. However, in terms of analyst expectations, the performance was relatively unimpressive. Earnings.com indicates that 41 cents is what the market was looking for.
Continue reading ConAgra only meets expectations, but is stock cheap?
Posted Jun 16th 2009 1:40PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Getting started, AT and T (T), Verizon Communications (VZ), Bargain stocks, Comfort Zone Investing, Chasing Value, Stocks to Buy

Nothing is worse than repeating past mistakes. Despite the awful economy, my newest portfolio is doing better than any other since 1999-2000, actually passing a 100% gain recently, although it has dropped back slightly with the market the past few trading days.
Ten years is recent enough for me to remember giving everything back and then some. I'm not doing that again. But what to do? I certainly do not like sitting with a heavy cash position collecting almost nothing. I have recently discussed this issue, see:
Serious Money: ETF that's better than cash.
The solution is to find stocks that have low volatility, high yields, and the recurring revenue and strong cash flow to maintain the yield. Long term investors will not be surprised by my search leading me to
AT and T (NYSE:
T) and
Verizon Communications (NYSE:
VZ), the two largest communications companies in the land.
Continue reading Chasing Value: AT&T and VZ, high yield plus safety
Posted Jun 11th 2009 2:50PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, ConAgra Foods (CAG), General Mills (GIS), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT)
Shares of Del Monte (NYSE: DLM) are up over 9% in early afternoon trading. And the volume is doing gangbusters business. The market is responding to the company's fourth-quarter results. The numbers did tell an overall fun story.
To begin with, revenues saw a big jump of 20%. As many news items have pointed out, price increases helped out. It should also be pointed out that the company's press release indicated that an extra week skewed things a bit. That's okay, though, it was still a good top-line performance. Earnings per share from continuing divisions came in at $0.35, which meant that Del Monte grew the bottom line by 75% (a couple elements affecting the perception of this profit expansion was a better tax situation linked to a positive change in California tax code and a $0.04 per-share transformation expense recorded in Q4 2008). Analysts said the company might earn $0.26 per share. That's a pleasant difference, isn't it?
Continue reading Del Monte's Q4 rocked -- buy or sell on the news?
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