Value Investing News

Commitment is a word often thrown around, but rarely backed up with actions. Salesmen are committed to your needs until you sign on the dotted line - then they are committed to next unsigned contract. A true measure of character is how committed are you to doing right when the times are hard and you are tempted to go astray?

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Diebold, Inc. provides ATMs and other self-service transaction systems and security products to the financial, commercial, government and retail markets. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

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The Industrials Sector is one of the largest sectors in my dividend growth database. Of the 209 stocks that I track, it currently is represented by 44 stocks (21%). This is not a sector I am in a position to buy often, but when the time is right, I plan on taking full advantage of the opportunity.

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In selecting a dividend growth stock, investors look at many metrics and try to determine what the future holds for the company. Among those considered are free cash flow, debt levels, current yield, dividend growth rate and fair value. Not to diminish any of these, because they are all very important, but they are not the most important thing that we need to look for.

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If your goal is to accumulate wealth for a comfortable retirement, then there is no risk-free path. Throughout time every angle has been tried and failed. Inherently, individual stocks will carry higher risk due to the lack of diversification when evaluated on a stand-alone basis.

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For most people fortunate enough to be born in the U.S., or any other industrialized country, they have access to the two main ingredients to achieve financial success: 1. Opportunity and 2. Time. Unfortunately, very few people are able to take advantage of the situation enough to even build a secure retirement.

A person’s character is determined by how they behave when no one else is looking and during difficult times. In much the same way, we can learn a lot about a company’s management when they face adversity. One metric I look at closely during a downturn is cash generation relative to earnings.

Dividend sustainability is paramount for the high-yield investor. Having a stock cut its dividend could potentially crush their income. A high-yield investor is less concerned about dividend growth than maintaining the current high-yield.

It seems nowadays that every investing article ends with the same conclusion – you should be buying dividend stocks. They are all quoting studies citing the performance edge that dividends have enjoyed over the long-term and the value of a semi-fixed return generated from periodic dividend payments. However, you should beware of some of the information provided.

As dividend growth investors, we want to limit our purchases to only the very best stocks. Our first step is to look at published lists of dividend companies such as S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, US Broad Dividend Achievers™ Index and The U.S. Dividend Champions. These lists are used to narrow the population of all publically traded companies down to the very best dividend stocks.

We have all heard it… Stodgy, for old people, yawn, boring! These have all been used to describe dividend growth investing. As a dividend growth investor, I sometimes think our strategy is the most misunderstood. Periodically, it is good to remind ourselves why we are dividend growth investors.

To succeed as a dividend growth investor you must identify and purchase stocks with sustainable dividend growth. Put another way, targeted companies must be both capable and willing to grow their dividends. Obviously, we can not look into the future and see who will and will not perform.

I was amazed to find several companies on the champions list, which have raised distributions for over 50 consecutive years. The companies include:

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.

What a difference a year makes. This time last year we were looking at big-name dividend cuts and very few increases. Last week’s 16 increases set the stage for this week’s flood of companies, large and small, raising cash dividends paid to their shareholders.