Shiv Kapoor

5 Dividend Stocks That Haven't Enjoyed the Run-Up

PG, SYY and WMT are defensive plays. It is likely that they will underperform at this time in the cycle. MCD is also fairly defensive, in fact assuming that unemployment will continue upwards for 9 months, we are at a stage where the market should start punishing MCD - once employment stabilizes, spending typically shifts to classier venues! And the market looks ahead some 6 months so the near term outlook for MCD is underperform.
ADP - here I agree. I expect this stock to strongly outperform; I am surprised it has not already started outperforming; perhaps another quarter is what it will take.
The stocks are a nice well yielding bunch; and buying them during a period of cyclical underperformance is no bad idea - personally I would wait a bit though!

Fractured Wall Street Fairy Tales #1: Buy and Hold is the Best Strategy

Joseph - I think you misunderstand buy and hold as a concept; a chart can never illustrate the success of a buy and hold investor, because the value of a stock at any point in time is irrelevant to his thinking - you see their return they earn comes substantially by way of dividends.
Buy and hold investors will not normally buy at any old value with a view to holding forever. They are typically investors who buy deep value and then hold forever. The most successful have an attitude which attributes no value to the future value of the share - i.e. even if the share value goes down substantially it does not matter, so long as the share continues to payout an income.
One such investor known to me has a simple buy policy; he buys when the dividend of a stock together with a 3% annual growth assumption can be had at a value which delivers him a 15% rate of return expected in perpetuity - for example if a stock pays a dividend of $1 and he is very confident it can grow this dividend at a 3% rate over the very long term, then he will buy it when it is selling for $8.58 {Dividend * 103%/[115%-103%]}. On rare occasions he will sell; but only when he has lost confidence in a stocks ability to continue its dividend together with growth at 3% annual. The index is not relevant - for instance at this point in time, he feels the index (SP500) would only represent deep value at 420 levels; because at that level a dividend payout of $24 (his estimate of dividend trough) will give him a return of 15% assuming 3% annual dividend growth. While the market has not got near his levels, several stocks have.
Twenty years on he receives a dividend which yields him 30% of his original cost. And yes, he sits on a huge capital gain; but to him that is meaningless.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Sure it is disappointing. But think about it $14 billion is not going to rescue GM or C unless the Unions accept lower wages immediately. If they do not, $14 billion might see both companies through two quarters max after which they will be insolvent once more. I do not think TARP provides a solution either, the Unions have to come back to the table and hopefully they will if it is clear that their agreement is worth diddly squat if they do not rationalze their compensation structures to parity with Japanese manufacturers in US. A proper Union agreement will greatly improve survival and perhaps even prosperity as the economy recovers. The alternative is a large increase in unemployment; should rise to 9.8% anyway but with this perhaps it could get a bit worse. Statistically, for employment to fall above 9.8% is a remote probability cause it is the level of mean less 3 standard deviation; but statistic modelling does not always work; all it can do is signal a near zero probability. An event can make 100% of that remote liklihood become reality, no matter how improbable. Not sure what the Unions are thinking here; do they want to work for another few months or a lifetime?