Value Investing News

The latest 10-K filing by EATON VANCE CORP

I couldn't begin to estimate how many different stocks are traded around the world. Like everything else, there are many participants, but few players. Though the population of stocks may be large, there are only a precious few that are worthy dividend stocks. When spending my time looking for worthy investments, there are four primary places I look:

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T. Rowe Price Group Inc. operates one of the largest no-load mutual fund complexes in the United States. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

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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:

There are millions of baby boomers retiring and needing financial advice. I expect them to use financial advice from certified planners, which would pre-sell open and closed-end funds and other financial products. While I am a big fan of dividend investing in retirement, I understand that most investors would probably end up relying on the four percent rule.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. operates one of the largest no-load mutual fund complexes in the United States. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

In this space we normally look at companies that have recently raised their dividends. However, 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 were the big dividend raisers in 2010 and what we might see in 2011. Here are ten companies for your consideration:

Dividends from a quality, well-diversified portfolio are much more predictable than capital gains and best of all, they are passive. You don’t have to do anything, they just show up in your brokerage account each quarter. Inflation? Not to worry, the good companies routinely raise their dividends well in excess of the inflation rate.

In my dividend database, I track nearly 190 stocks in 19 different sectors. Generally, the characteristics of certain sectors tend to match those that dividend growth investors are looking for, thus their constituents are often make better dividend investments. In the case of the stocks I track, nearly half of them are in these three sectors:

The goals of an income portfolio are much different than those of a capital appreciation portfolio. The good news is an income portfolio consisting of quality dividend growth stocks can not only succeed, but excel during a market downturn. Dividend investors are focused on building a stream of steadily rising income from solid companies.

Did May 6th frighten or excite you? I received a few emails from frightened dividend investors letting me know they were getting out of the market, while others asked if this was the beginning of another significant downturn. The first group are destined to always lose money in the market (sell low/buy high) and my answer to the second group was, ‘I hope so!’ Let me explain.