Teak

Wasserstein Death to Have Minimal Impact on Kraft-Cadbury Deal

Just as I thought all along: Wasserstein's death means that he wasn't *that* important. Investment bankers are WAY overpaid. Massive egos and aggressive behaviour is what allows them to get those ridiculous pay packages. Read "The Last Tycoons" by William Cohan and you will see what Wasserstein was about. Hell just received yet another investment banker, methinks.

Equities Update: Earnings Power

Yes, buy-and-hold may not have worked over the past decade if you were a growth-only investor; i.e., invested in "growth" stocks that don't pay dividends. My dividend-payers have done quite, well, not in price growth but in seeing my dollar cost average drop with the reinvested dividends.

Getting Ready for Retirement

The S&P may have been flat over the past 10-11 years, but someone holding blue-chip dividend paying stocks over that time period would have achieved an annualised growth of +5.4%. Not everyone owns a S&P 500 index fund.

On Sep 22 06:24 PM SeekingTruth wrote:

> D4L, Thanks for some solid and useful data and suggestions. MadHFT

> It is worth recognizing that the S&P 500 is at a level first
> seen in Feb. 1998, more than 11 years ago. i.e. Flat for over 11
> years on a growth basis for buy and hold investors.
> Message : Don't buy and hold mindlessly, even better dividend paying
> stocks should be let go when overvalued, but only with great caution
> and care with the mind and strategy to buy them back along the way,
> or to improve and update your selections..
> Again thanks for a good and useful article , you do us an excellent
> service, also MadMFT.

Raw Deal for Kraft Shareholders

KFT was spun out of MO at $31.66 a share by my calculations (it was never stated what the price was) on 31 March 2007. Now it hovers around mid-$26 price range.

I bought more shares of KFT one year after spinoff hoping that it would continue as a divdend-payer. Author makes strong points, however, that maybe Ms. Irene has empire-building plans so need to rethink my investment with this company.

Dividends Get No Respect

Charles Schwab also allows one to reinvest dividends. You make the choice at the time of purchase, but also have the option to change it later.


On Sep 21 11:38 AM dick black wrote:

> The biggest problem I see is that discount brokers DO NOT REINVEST
> dividends.

Indian Markets: A Tale of Many Numbers

Help me understand one thing from your numbers:
YTD 2009
Net Foreign Activity(US$m) = +7,310
Net Local Fund Activity(US$m) = +878

Does this mean that foreign investment in India's market exceeds local investment by a factor of 9?? Or is it only the change in investment for 2009 (year-to-date) that is different by 9x??

Thanks.

Choose Phillip Morris, Not Altria

What does it take to get published (posted) in SeekingAlpha? Maybe I should post some of my five-minute thoughts. I can spell. I also own both PM and MO, having had shares of PM given to me in the spin-off from MO. Why not own both?

I hope that SeekingAlpha doesn't become like Motley Fool: a bunch of investment dribble masquerading as advice when it is really a come-on to subscribe to someone's newsletter or blog.

Fully Invested, but Defensively So

Is this real money that you are spending to build the portfolio (including broker fees), or is this a Play Portfolio. I don't trust players, I only want to see what people with "skin in the game" are doing.

Buy and Hold Is Alive and Well

Buy and Hold makes sense if you buy solid dividend-paying companies that will be around and paying dividends in the future. When their prices go down (and stay down), the dollar-cost averaging of a growing dividend payment, reinvested, works in your favor.

If you plan on trying to live off the dividend stream, then there is no point in worrying about the price going up; in fact, you don't want to the price to race up. My hope (plan) is that my children will inherit my shares after I use the dividend stream for retirement income. Isn't this what investing in companies is supposed to be about?

If I started my own company, I wouldn't sell it, buy it back, sell it, buy it back, etc. ad nauseum. I would own the business long-term and trust that it would give me an income stream long-term. It is this craziness surrounding day-trading, week-trading, month-trading that makes for the silly up-and-down price movements. The price of xxx goes up Monday 1%; it falls 1% on Tuesday; it goes up on Wednesday, falls on Thursday; retraces on Friday. Back to square one. Did the business really change that much in one week??

Looking Forward to More Dividend Increases Like Johnson & Johnson's

Yes, companies cut dividends to conserve cash. But they could also cut CEO pay, and bonus, and perqs, and etc. The shareholders of some companies are certainly taking a back seat to the empty suits that are NOT building shareholder value, rather draining shareholder value into their own bank accounts.

Time for major restructuring. CEOs should not be appointing members of the Board of Directors.

Procter and Gamble Shatters Dividend Myths in Current Economy

Right, those dividends could be better used to pay management massive bonuses.....yeah yeah, I get it.

Kraft CEO's 50% Pay Raise Is Wrong

Thanks for the analysis. As a KFT shareholder by virtue (?) of the Altria spinoff, you have my attention.

Cigarettes: Business Is Still Smoking

Yeah, yeah, let's hear some more negative warnings about the threat of lawsuits. Keep that stock price low!! I want my reinvested dividends to buy more shares each quarter. I can't do that if the stock price goes up.

As someone who lives outside the USA, I know that few countries are concerned right now about suing tobacco companies. Those prime ministers, and members of parliament, are too worried about other things: political rivals, or finding new mistresses, as they sit and puff on their cigarettes and drink their tea.

EPI: My Pick from All India Focused Funds

I agree with the first commenter. As a holder of IFN, I have enjoyed the distribution payouts which I reinvest. Will EPI pay-through company dividends, or will the 'managers' use the money to increase the NAV and, thus, their 'management fees'? Comparing the % mgt fee is not in itself a complete comparison, you must also include info regarding distributions.

I am not a fan of mutual funds, and I use country-based closed-end funds only to get exposure to countries where it is difficult to buy shares directly. I want dividends paid through, not retained by the 'manager'.

Why I Bought AT&T Despite Less than Stellar Earnings

I too hold T as a part of a diversified portfolio (24 companies, 1 country ETF, 2 country closed-end funds). My holding in T is only 106 shares of which 100 were purchased and 6 bought via dividend reinvestment.

Don't put too much weight on the criticism of SA readers. I too sometimes throw a complaint or two out there. Some SA articles are a waste of time, and need to be 'called out'. Others are useful. This analysis of T was useful. Thank you, but I am already part of the choir.