Value Investing News

This is the second installment in a multi-part series that looks at various options used by income investors to boost their yield while waiting for dividend growth to lift their portfolio’s overall yield-on-cost. Last week we looked at Utilities. This week we are looking at Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

It was only a few months ago that many experts declared dividend investing dead, after almost all financial companies in the US cut or eliminated their distributions to shareholders. In recent months there has been a slow but steady trend of many companies showing their confidence in the economic rebound by raising distributions.

You can’t spend earnings! At first glance, this may seem like an odd statement. However, it is an important axiom for all types of investors. Through fraud and manipulation financial statements can be made to look quite impressive, but the cash that arrives in your brokerage account is real.

When people learn that I am an income investor, the reaction is often a desire to discuss high-yield investments. The uninitiated commonly confuse income investing with high-yield investing. The two are not the same.

Companies have several means through which they share their prosperity with shareholders. Dividends are the portion of corporate profits paid out to stockholders in the form of cash. Share buybacks on the other hand distributes cash to existing shareholders in exchange for a fraction of the company’s outstanding equity.

Last week marked yet another rollercoaster performance in the stock market, as major indices clocked in yet another weekly loss. Markets rebounded from their lows on Monday as they were reassured by General Electric (GE) that it will maintain its dividend payment in 2009, which boosted the stock by over $2 in one day.

An increasing cash dividend keeps pressure on management to ensure the company is well run. If there are too many missteps, then eventually a dividend will slip. Earnings can be manufactured, cash can not. Always follow the cash and it just might lead you to a great company. Here are eight stocks striving to be a great by raising their cash dividends: