Value Investing News

I am a firm believer that asset allocation plays a significant part in a portfolio’s long-term results. Recently, I received a question asking if you could have a diversified portfolio of dividend stocks. It is an interesting question that deserves further examination.

Though many dividend stocks are now trading in excess of their calculated fair value, capital appreciation is not the primary reason for investing in dividend stocks. Dividend fundamentals are what drive my purchase decision, and if I could only look at one metric it would be...

The dividend aristocrats list includes companies which have increased dividends for over 25 years in a row. It is equally weighted and re-balanced once an year. Over the past 3,5 and 7 years the index of elite dividend stocks has managed to outperform the S&P 500 by 5%, 3.7% and 4.40% respectively.

As the year draws to a close there were very few companies of note increasing their dividends this week. With that, I thought it would be interesting to see who might be the big dividend raisers in 2010. Here are seven companies for your consideration:

When selecting a dividend growth stock there is really only one factor that is important – sustainability. As we evaluate many aspects of a company, what we are really trying to determine is if the company can continue to raise its dividend indefinitely into the future.

There are certainly many ways to categorize the different styles of investing in dividend stocks, including yield, risk, growth, etc. Over the years, I have found that most dividend investing styles fall into one of the three major categories listed below:

Aflac Incorporated engages in the marketing and sale of supplemental health and life insurance plans in the United States and Japan. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

We all want to succeed in everything that we do, including investing in the stock market. Though I have no analytical data to back it up, I am convinced that most people will lose money in the stock market over their lifetime. So why do so few people succeed at investing?

Looking for some companies to research this weekend? Here are five that I like. Each passes the ModernGraham tests for the Enterprising Investor, based on the teachings of Benjamin Graham.

The strong bullish move off of March 2009 lows has lifted many stocks, thus creating large unrealized paper gains for many dividend investors. While prices have enjoyed a steep run-up, dividend yields, which move inversely to prices, have declined in the process.

Most companies use debt for a variety of reasons in their operations. It could be either short term or long-term obligations. If there’s anything the 2007-2009 financial crisis has taught us, it is that excessively leveraged companies could easily blow up after a chain of negative events. Thus it pays to know what the debt situation for a particular company you are investing in actually is.

I am a firm believer in keeping things simple. However, you can simplify things to the point they no longer have value. In my opinion, a lot of the commonly used financial metrics can be very misleading unless you understand what is behind them. Let’s take a closer look at Dividend Payout.

There has been some controversy over harvesting forests of hardwoods and reseeding them with pines. Valuable hardwood require decades to reach financial maturity. The southern pine reaches financial maturity in a fraction of the time. Growing hardwoods is very similar to investing in dividend stocks.

Aflac
Incorporated, through its subsidiary, American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (Aflac), provides supplemental health and life insurance in the USA and Japan. The company is member the S&P Dividend Aristocrats index.
Aflac has consistently increased dividends for 27 consecutive years. The company announced a 16.70% dividend raise in October 2008.

Financial stocks,which used to be great dividend investments,have had their share of troubles over the past two years.The sector has rebounded sharply since hitting its lows in March.Since the major dividend growth stories of the past such as Bank of America and US Bancorp have cut dividends, most dividend growth investors seem to have a very low allocation to the sector.As a result dividend inves