Pitney Bowes Violated Every Principle Of Conservative Dividend Investing [View article]
When I started managing my own investments in late 2009, PBI was one of the first stocks I bought. That yield looked so good. I also bought some FTR at the same time. I had visions of early retirement
Within a few months I had learned a lot. I had made the classic newbie mistake, I chased yield. I dumped PBI, FTR and WIN. I eplaced them with KO, WMT, MCD, JNJ, PG, and other stocks of that same type.
I learned a couple of lessons before disaster struck. Quality, debt, cash flow, payout ratio, growth and all of those other boring things matter. Since selling them, every one of those earlier stocks have cut dividends and their price plummeted.
BTW take a look at AT&T's dividend growth. It is pathetic. I sold 80% of my stake in them several months ago.
Your article has provided me some additional confidence that I am looking at the right things before buying a stock. I have been doing this only 3 years.
I once read (or heard) somewhere "manage your risks and the profits will follow). As a part of that I always look at how a company handled dividends during the worse parts of the recession.
The last paragraph of Section 4 was especially helpful. I have never taken the approach of starting at the sector and then working in to identify the stock. It is so logical that it is embarrassing Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-siz... mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom... mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",... mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:m... mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:m... mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:mi... didn't think of it myself.
Coca-Cola's Dividend Increase: Revisiting The Story [View article]
I was invested in CTL and KO both. Fortunately CTL made up only 1.14% of our portfolio. KO makes up 10.3%. I had planned on getting rid of the CTL for quite some time. I just never got around to it. I ended up with an approximate $9.00 pr share loss. I guess the lessons are: Buy quality Diversify (I am diversified) Don't procrastinate.
The Hard Truth Of Dividend-Growth Investing [View article]
I guess I am a bit of a pig, I want dividend growth, earnings growth and the company's value to grow. If they don't meet all three I don't buy them. The average growth combined with the yield needs to exceed 10% per year. I give more points for dividend growth than I do yield.
When I first started, I used the dividend Aristocrats and Champions list. In my opinion it is a place to go for ideas as to which stocks you may want to evaluate. It is a mistake to buy based upon those lists. A perfect example of that is CTL.
Coca-Cola Vs. PepsiCo: The Same Taste For The Stock Market Too? [View article]
I bought KO about two years ago because the entry price was so low. I liked them because of their supply chain and durability. They continued raising their dividend during the worse parts of the recession. One year ago Pepsi had a stellar quarter. Revenues and profits both were up and the stock price dropped. It dropped because they announced they were going to spend $1B over 3 years to improve operations which would improve market share. Maybe most investors didn't like it, I loved it. To me it was proactive management that was not resting on its laurels. I immediately bought some PEP. Because of Pepsi's wide but related product diversification, I consider them to be only a partial competitor to KO. I sleep very well at night owning both stocks
CenturyLink Shocks The Market With Its Dividend Cut [View article]
When I first started dividend investing I loaded up on the rural telcos. I had visions or early retirement. As I learned more, I got scared and I dumped (with a slight profit) all of FTR, WIN and all but 100 shares of CTL. I replaced them with much higher quality stocks. I remember telling my wife about two weeks ago that I needed to get rid of the balance of our CTL shares. I procrastinated and didn't get it done before the stock when into free fall. Overall we still pulled a profit on the CTL stock. However, nobody likes to sell a stock for less than what they paid for it. The take away should be Fundamentals and quality do count.
Walmart was one of the first stocks I bought after I fired the brokers and liquidated the mutual funds. I was lucky, the average I paid was $54.23 per share.
The way I described it to my wife was "Walmart prints money for a living. Retail is their hobby."
Retirement Strategy: How Long Will Your Portfolio Last? [View article]
I have many of the stocks you have listed for the same reason. Live off of only the dividends
However, I recently sold 80% of my AT&T (T). As we all know, one of the key elements is a dividends growth rate. The lat five T dividend increases have been: 2.22%, 2.27%, 2.33%, 2.38% & 2.44%
Retirement Strategy: How Long Will Your Portfolio Last? [View article]
I have all of the stocks in you list except for XOM. However, I recently sold 80% of the AT&T (T) stock. The last 5 dividend increases have been under 2.22%, 2.27%, 2.33%, 2.38% & 2.44%.
I need better growth than that. I am not looking at today. I am looking at 12 years from now when the IRS forces me to start withdrawing from my IRA.
Seeking Shelter From The Storm? Consider Mega Caps [View article]
What do you consider to be the minimum capitalization for a "Mega-Cap" ? I have seen lists that show some companies as Mega-Caps and other lists that show that same company as a Large Cap.
Dividend Payers In The S&P 500 May Become More Scarce In 2013 [View article]
nbsp;agree with your logic Rhiannion. I don't especially want to pay higher taxes. However, in today's environment, it seems the only thing worth investing inis high quality dividend stocks. Since the election ouraccounts have taken quite a hit because everybody is now focused on the"Fiscal Cliff". It is under thesecircumstances that makes or breaks the logic of investing in dividend stocks. This morning I pointedout to my wife that the dividends (some of which we use to supplement ourincome) continue to come in. The obvious result is;we will not suffer any long term damage because of selling equities for incomewhile they are going down. This is a buyingopportunity if you have any cash.
AT&T Corp (T) declares $0.45/share quarterly dividend, 2.3% increase from prior dividend of $0.44. For shareholders of record Jan 10. Payable Feb. 1. Ex-div Jan 8. (PR) [View news story]
I am a dividend investor. However, I want growing dividends. For several years AT&Ts dividend growth has been anemic. This last increase confirms the anemia.
That is why I sold about 80% of my AT&T a few months ago.
This 8.5% Dividend Yielder Is A Cash Flow Machine [View article]
A little over two years ago I was very new to investing. One of the first things I did was buy a lot of FTR. I bought in at $7.71 a share, Div $.25/qtr, yld 13.15%, payout ratio was approximately 250% (can't remember for sure). A little over a year ago I was a lot more knowledgeable than I was when I started doing my own investments. That knowledge caused me to become very concerned with FTR's financial viability, so I dumped them hard and fast. When I got out of FTR the stats were: sold at $7.91 a share. Dividend had gone down to by 25% to $.1875/qtr, yld 9.48%
Let’s look at today's stats that I pulled from the research section of my Scottrade account:
Previous close $4.64 (down 31.89% from when I bought) Payout Ratio 550% Dividend $.10 per quarter (down 60% from when I bought) Earnings per share MRQ $.08, This is 20% less than the dividend. PEG 12.6, That is extremely high LTD/Equity is double that of its peers.
FTR's appealing yield is because they are doing so poorly, not because they are doing so well. I will not go back to this stock or any other telecom except T and VZ
Pitney Bowes Violated Every Principle Of Conservative Dividend Investing [View article]
I had visions of early retirement
Within a few months I had learned a lot.
I had made the classic newbie mistake, I chased yield.
I dumped PBI, FTR and WIN.
I eplaced them with KO, WMT, MCD, JNJ, PG, and other stocks of that same type.
I learned a couple of lessons before disaster struck. Quality, debt, cash flow, payout ratio, growth and all of those other boring things matter. Since selling them, every one of those earlier stocks have cut dividends and their price plummeted.
BTW take a look at AT&T's dividend growth. It is pathetic. I sold 80% of my stake in them several months ago.
7 Investing Truths [View article]
Your article has provided me some additional confidence that I am looking at the right things before buying a stock. I have been doing this only 3 years.
I once read (or heard) somewhere "manage your risks and the profits will follow). As a part of that I always look at how a company handled dividends during the worse parts of the recession.
The last paragraph of Section 4 was especially helpful. I have never taken the approach of starting at the sector and then working in to identify the stock. It is so logical that it is embarrassing Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-siz... mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom... mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",... mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:m... mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:m... mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:mi... didn't think of it myself.
Coca-Cola's Dividend Increase: Revisiting The Story [View article]
I had planned on getting rid of the CTL for quite some time. I just never got around to it. I ended up with an approximate $9.00 pr share loss. I guess the lessons are:
Buy quality
Diversify (I am diversified)
Don't procrastinate.
The Hard Truth Of Dividend-Growth Investing [View article]
When I first started, I used the dividend Aristocrats and Champions list. In my opinion it is a place to go for ideas as to which stocks you may want to evaluate. It is a mistake to buy based upon those lists. A perfect example of that is CTL.
Coca-Cola Vs. PepsiCo: The Same Taste For The Stock Market Too? [View article]
I liked them because of their supply chain and durability. They continued raising their dividend during the worse parts of the recession.
One year ago Pepsi had a stellar quarter. Revenues and profits both were up and the stock price dropped. It dropped because they announced they were going to spend $1B over 3 years to improve operations which would improve market share. Maybe most investors didn't like it, I loved it. To me it was proactive management that was not resting on its laurels.
I immediately bought some PEP.
Because of Pepsi's wide but related product diversification, I consider them to be only a partial competitor to KO.
I sleep very well at night owning both stocks
CenturyLink Shocks The Market With Its Dividend Cut [View article]
I remember telling my wife about two weeks ago that I needed to get rid of the balance of our CTL shares. I procrastinated and didn't get it done before the stock when into free fall.
Overall we still pulled a profit on the CTL stock. However, nobody likes to sell a stock for less than what they paid for it.
The take away should be Fundamentals and quality do count.
Wal-Mart Dividend Growth Stock Analysis [View article]
The way I described it to my wife was "Walmart prints money for a living. Retail is their hobby."
Appealing Valuation Derived From CSX's Growth Potential [View article]
Retirement Strategy: How Long Will Your Portfolio Last? [View article]
However, I recently sold 80% of my AT&T (T). As we all know, one of the key elements is a dividends growth rate. The lat five T dividend increases have been:
2.22%, 2.27%, 2.33%, 2.38% & 2.44%
That is not enough growth for me.
Retirement Strategy: How Long Will Your Portfolio Last? [View article]
I need better growth than that.
I am not looking at today. I am looking at 12 years from now when the IRS forces me to start withdrawing from my IRA.
Seeking Shelter From The Storm? Consider Mega Caps [View article]
I have seen lists that show some companies as Mega-Caps and other lists that show that same company as a Large Cap.
3 Reasons Not To Flee Dividend Stocks [View article]
Dividend Payers In The S&P 500 May Become More Scarce In 2013 [View article]
AT&T Corp (T) declares $0.45/share quarterly dividend, 2.3% increase from prior dividend of $0.44. For shareholders of record Jan 10. Payable Feb. 1. Ex-div Jan 8. (PR) [View news story]
That is why I sold about 80% of my AT&T a few months ago.
This 8.5% Dividend Yielder Is A Cash Flow Machine [View article]
I bought in at $7.71 a share, Div $.25/qtr, yld 13.15%, payout ratio was approximately 250% (can't remember for sure).
A little over a year ago I was a lot more knowledgeable than I was when I started doing my own investments. That knowledge caused me to become very concerned with FTR's financial viability, so I dumped them hard and fast.
When I got out of FTR the stats were: sold at $7.91 a share. Dividend had gone down to by 25% to $.1875/qtr, yld 9.48%
Let’s look at today's stats that I pulled from the research section of my Scottrade account:
Previous close $4.64 (down 31.89% from when I bought)
Payout Ratio 550%
Dividend $.10 per quarter (down 60% from when I bought)
Earnings per share MRQ $.08, This is 20% less than the dividend.
PEG 12.6, That is extremely high
LTD/Equity is double that of its peers.
FTR's appealing yield is because they are doing so poorly, not because they are doing so well.
I will not go back to this stock or any other telecom except T and VZ