Value Investing News

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. It seems everyone understands a traders mentality and a high-yield mentality.

You can get a good look at Castle Point's portfolio here:
http://www.rocketfinancial.com/Holdings.aspx?fID=10102

He's obviously very focused on financial services companies. You can also look back over time and see what he held in the past!

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.

Today the market headlines were nothing more than sensational. Corporate earnings from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), and CSX Corp.

Lender Processing Services is riding the historic wave of mortgage defaults, and with continuing high rates of late mortgages and a building backlog of foreclosures, business looks good for 2010 as well. But there are some real risks to consider before investing.

The most important dividend events of the past week included news that have regulators warned financial companies to restrict dividend increases and stock buybacks for the near future. According to Reuters, executives from Goldman Sachs (GS) and JP Morgan Chase (JPM) have had talks with regulators about returning more cash to shareholders.

Tilson's Q4 portfolio has been filed. New positions include ATLS, JPM warrants, BKCC, BNCL, FNF, CMG, C, TCX, MSFT, SATS, WEN, KFT, MVC, PFCB, Y, FL, HEK, BGP, WINN, and DLIA.

After earnings announcements from Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), Intel Corporation (NasdaqGS: INTC) and JP Morgan Chase Co. (NYSE: JPM) did not live up to expectations and their stocks fell, the market is beginning to get a little nervous. We have seen the market have some recent sharp declines on these earnings, each following day it has bounced back and recovered most of its losses.