Value Investing News

There are winners and there are champions in every walk of life. The difference is subtle, but very real. A champion is driven for success and will not let anything stand in its way. Some dividend stocks can be classified as champions.

Most of the companies which leave the dividend achievers or the dividend aristocrat indexes do so because of three reasons. Firtst, they might stop raising dividends because they needed cash for acquisitions. Another reason is that companies cut distributions because of poor economic conditions or need for cash in acquisition.

Kraft Foods Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets packaged food products and grocery products worldwide. The company has consistently raised dividends since it went public in 2001. It was a part of tobacco conglomerate Altria Group (MO), until Kraft was spun off in May 2007.

As summer turns to fall and the heat begins to moderate, winter and its freezing temperatures are just around the corner. However, some companies have been frozen in place for the last year; more specifically, their dividends have been frozen at the same rate for more than a year.

Sometimes good companies aren’t good buys, and this is not always a bad thing. Often it is a result of the market over reacting in a positive direction. The stocks simply become overvalued, but their underlying fundamentals remain excellent. Below are a couple of companies that fall into this group:

How can you have free trade at $140 a barrel of oil? Oil and energy expert Byron King says the cost of fueling a cargo ship to travel between Los Angeles and Shanghai is nearly $4 million! That’s an 87% increase since 2005. This increase is altering the patterns of free trade.

Small cap stocks need not be hot tip penny stocks or speculative growth stories based on an idea and a prayer. There are plenty of quality, undervalued small cap stocks out there, and this article tells you how to find them.

Is Hersshey a bargain?

Tom Russo.

This article explores Charlie Munger's mental models. The author then applies those mental models to a case study on the Hershey Company.