Value Investing News

IBM global capabilities include information technology services, software, computer hardware equipment, fundamental research, and related financing. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

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In the Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham introduces us to Mr. Market, a fickle fellow that at times behaves as a manic depressive; ... a demoralized Mr. Market will sell his shares for pennies on the dollar. The last three years has been marked by tremendous volatility in the Market.

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When you hear the words "tech stocks", many investors think back to the tech bubble in the late 90s. A company's goal then was to plow back every penny into the business and grow the business. The entire focus was on capital gains. During this era companies that paid dividends were looked down on as inferior.

Hewlett-Packard is selling at one of its cheapest valuations in history, despite growing sales, margins, and profits. Is the market's pessimism justified, or is this a good time to grab shares of this global tech giant?

Any income investor will tell you that it is important for a company to sustain its dividend. However, as an investor in dividend growth stocks, it is not enough to simply sustain the dividend – I want to own companies that are capable of sustained dividend growth.

Magic Formula Investing is a process that can be applied to any list of stocks, not just the market at large. This article shows how you can use the MFI process to find the best opportunities in a variety of scenarios.

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.

Payback is the amount of time needed for an investment to earn its cost, undiscounted. For example, if you buy a dividend stock for $100 that pays a $5 annual dividend, the payback is 20 years (100/5). Though not very sophisticated, payback can still help you screen for good, solid dividend growth stocks. I learned this lesson the hard way…

The investment returns of most fund managers are generally compared against a common benchmark. This provides for an objective evaluation of their performance over a period of time. A common benchmark for most mutual fund managers is the total returns of the S&P 500 index. This benchmark is also useful for comparison to dividend investors as well.

There are many companies that have many years building moats around their businesses. This moat makes it difficult for competitors to encroach upon their market share. Suffice to say, business with moat have sustainable competitive advantage. In general, companies with moats in their business are very good dividend growth providers.

The Forbes Top 150 Companies list ranked by Magic Formula Statistics. Which large global companies are both cheap and highly efficient with capital?

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.

Over the past week twenty-two companies announced that they would be rewarding shareholders with higher dividend payouts. Several solid blue chip companies such as IBM, Costco and Exxon Mobil raised their payouts as well.

In the U.S. and Canada, most companies pay dividends quarterly. In other parts of the world, it is not uncommon for companies to pay an annual or a semi-annual dividend. That is not to say that North American companies sometimes choose not to pay quarterly dividends. Though I prefer quarterly dividends, there is something more important than frequency...

Magic Software is a provider of "platform-as-a-service" cloud computing application development tools and business software integration applications. It is a market with big growth potential, but also big boys as competitors. Can Magic survive and thrive?