Value Investing News

Aflac Incorporated provides supplemental health and life insurance in the U.S. and Japan. Products are marketed at work sites and help fill gaps in primary insurance coverage. Approximately 80% of earnings comes from Japan and 20% from the U.S. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

Fair value is really a simple concept. Given some select information such as dividends, dividend growth, holding period, discount rate and few other inputs, one can easily calculate the fair value of a stock. As with most simple things, the devil is in the details - the inputs must be correct to calculate a reasonable fair value, otherwise, garbage in, garbage out.

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32 best dividend stocks selected for 2012 based on valuation and earnings.

Even hibernating bears know that bonds have essentially been dead money over the last year, or so. Interest rates are ridiculously low and not likely to improve any time soon given the anemic U.S. economy and European financial concerns. What's done is done, so what should we expect to earn from bonds in the future? Consider these two scenarios:

Who wouldn't like to earn a safe 15% on their original investment? Normally double-digit returns are the fodder of con artists or associated with extraordinarily risky investments. In either of these cases, the person is usually left holding despair in one hand and an empty wallet in the other. However, I have discovered that you can actually enjoy high yields with minimal risk...

This year the market has been quite volatile. With significant run ups followed by steep declines. This has provided income investors first hand experience in managing both their emotions and their income portfolio in an unsettled market. To make the most of these trying times, here are some concepts to help you succeed and thrive during a market correction:

Growth or yield? In a perfect world, income investors would want both from their investments and are not interested in investments that offer neither. This is where the common ground ends, and the debate begins. Without the benefit of a perfect world, we are left with the middle ground which is a balancing act between growth and yield.

With all the other investment strategies out there, why should investors consider dividend or income investing? There are a multitude of reasons to follow a dividend growth strategy. These include: investment stability, security of cash, continuous feedback, potential higher returns, low maintenance, et. al.

The Pocket Change Portfolio (PCP) was first introduced on September 13, 2008 as a real money dividend income portfolio funded by the "pocket change" earned from my various online endeavors. Each month I report on the portfolio's progress and update its holdings. Dividends Received
Total dividends received during the month were...

Once again it is time for a goals/progress update. I am pleased to report that annualized dividend income increased in September, extending the streak to 15 consecutive months of increases after June 2010's decline. Since I began publicly tracking annualized dividend income in November 2007, it has increased in 44 of the last 46 months.

Payback is the amount of time needed for an investment to earn its cost, undiscounted. Once you earn back your investment, some might say you are in a no-lose situation. I wouldn’t go quite that far, but you have found an investment that that has provided you a good historical revenue stream, and hopefully it will continue to do so in the future.

Are you from another planet? That's the look I got several weeks ago when I admitted to a group of colleagues that I had not been following the daily gyrations of the stock market. Investing in dividend growth stocks is about strategically selecting appropriate times to buy, but not timing the market.

The recent turbulence in the market has provided income investors first hand experience in managing their dividend growth portfolio in a declining market. Here are some things that will help you succeed and thrive when the bear puts his paw print on the market:

This week week, I screened my dividend growth stocks database for stocks that will be yielding 10% in 10 years at current yield and dividend growth rate (based on Monday's close). The results are presented below:

If we were able to design the perfect dividend stock it would be one that is both high-yield and provide a high dividend growth rate. Its share price would appreciate ratable with its increasing dividend. All of this would be driven by increasing earnings and cash flow.