Value Investing News

As we age, our need for medical services, devices and medications seems to increase as each year passes. This week week, I screened my dividend growth stocks database for healthcare companies with a yield at or above 2.8% and have increased their dividends for at least 10 consecutive years. The results are presented below:

In normal times stock market declines would excite me and I would hope for another 5-10% drop. I love to buy quality dividend growth stocks when they go on sale. A lower price means a higher yield and more dollars in my pocket. Recently, I have had some questions that have puzzled me, and as I looked for answers what I found left me concerned. Here are the three questions:

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Make no mistake, Dividend Aristocrats are the blue-blood of dividend growth stocks. When building your core portfolio, this list is where you want to start your evaluation. If you want dividend growth, these stocks have been there, and done that - for decades.

Dividends are not paid with sales, earnings, EPS, EBIT or EBITDA. Instead dividends are paid with cash. As an investor, you want to pay close attention to the cash flow statement. Unfortunately, it is probably the least used and most misunderstood statement. Ultimately, cash flow is what drives the value of any financial asset.

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The Pocket Change Portfolio (PCP) was first introduced on September 13, 2008 as a real money dividend income portfolio funded by the "pocket change" earned from my various online endeavors. Each month I report on the portfolio's progress and update its holdings.

Once again it is time for a goals/progress update. I am pleased to report that annualized dividend income increased in May, extending the streak to 12 consecutive months of increases after June 2010's decline. Since I began publicly tracking annualized dividend income in November 2007, it has increased in 41 of the last 43 months.

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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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Abbott Laboratories is a diversified life science company and is a leading maker of drugs, nutritional products, diabetes monitoring devices, and diagnostics. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

Any master architect will tell you the the key to a quality structure is its foundation. Solid buildings have firm foundations. The more solid the foundation, the less likely the building will suffer damage from storms, earthquakes, or settling of the earth. In much the same way, the foundation of solid Dividend Growth Stocks are their financials.

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.

Below you could find a brief overview of each of the four stock picks:

there are very few reasons to own gold, besides the expectations that it would hit some magical high point because the imaginary printing press of the FED would create massive inflation. Gold is typically perceived as a store of value and as a sort of international currency.

Has someone near and dear to you responded with a ‘I was only trying to help’ after royally messing something up? Have you ever tinkered with a computer, smart phone or something else only to learn it no longer works and you are not sure how to fix it? Our dividend stock investments can suffer the same fate if we provide them with too much of the wrong type of attention.

In 2009, I introduced the Stock Ideas list and it has proven to be immensely popular. The list consists of Dividend Aristocrats, US Broad Dividend Achievers and U.S. Dividend Champions. Duplications in the above lists are eliminated and stocks are crossed out when I learn that they have either cut their dividend or fail to raise it.