Category Archives: Investment Choices

Get Fat Yields With Foreign Dividend Funds

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Hungry for reliable income, investors have been embracing dividend-paying blue-chips. Plenty of solid utilities and consumer companies yield 3%. That seems like a rich payout at a time when 10-year Treasuries yield 2.0%.

But to get an even higher yield, consider funds that focus on foreign dividend stocks. Many foreign blue-chips yield more than 4%. Forward International Dividend, a mutual fund, yields 5.9%.

Besides paying higher yields, foreign dividend payers tend to be cheaper than their U.S. counterparts. While the S&P 500 has a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 13, the stocks in the Forward fund have a P/E of 8.6.

Holiday Edition – The Landmark

Back when I was a kid, I would eat a hero sandwich (some of you may call it a “sub,” “hoagie,” “grinder,” or even a “wedge”) from my favorite local shop at least three or four times a week. My favorite sandwich was roast beef with lettuce, tomato, oil, and salt, and mayo every so often. The oil they used was so tasty you hated to miss the specific taste of it with mayo.

Anyway, this sandwich place would always have lines way out the door every day at lunchtime, so I’d go there early in the morning as they were opening up to grab my piece of food heaven before the crowds. Here’s the thing though: if you weren’t from the area, the shop probably didn’t look too enticing. First of all, it wasn’t like things are today regarding sanitary conditions. The owner of the shop would often slice the deli meat and hand it to a customer with his bare hands to give it a taste, and then go handle the customer’s money as well! If that wasn’t a bit of a turn off, did I mention the owner’s cat that could often be seen walking behind the counter? I couldn’t make this stuff up.

But when it came to the taste of the subs, there was no one better. “Landi’s” as it was known in Yonkers, New York was a landmark for food lovers.

At Dividend.com, we pride ourselves on being the landmark for investors whose net worth varies from someone’s first $ 1k to invest with, to investors who have their vast net worth invested in income-producing assets like dividend stocks. We hope we can bring individuals the same type of great memories from using our service and newsletter that I had when it came to “Landi’s subs” — where you very rarely complained about anything. It’s quite a task to live up to such high expectations, but we strive every day to bring subscribers the best possible investment service, and we’ll continue to do so over the many years ahead!

8 Steady Large-Cap Funds to Watch

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — It is not surprising that investors have been pouring into Yacktman Focused Fund.

During the past 10 years, the fund returned 11.5% annually, outdoing the S&P 500 by 7 percentage points and ranking as the top-performing large value fund, according to Morningstar. But investors who are ready to buy Yacktman should understand that the fund does not top the charts every year. In fact, Yacktman finished in the bottom half of its category in five of the last 10 years. In 2005, the fund trailed 98% of its peers.

The erratic performance is hardly unusual. The huge majority of funds suffer off years when managers make mistakes or their styles run cold. But a small number of funds have produced consistent track records, finishing in the top half of their categories in at least 8 years out of the last 10. Among the large-cap funds that pass the test are Amana Trust Income, Fidelity Contrafund, Fidelity OTC, Gabelli Equity Income AAA, Manning & Napier Pro-Blend Maximum Term, MFS Growth, and Sentinel Common Stock.

Click to view a price quote on YAFFX.

Market Wrap-Up for Feb.17 (HNZ, CPB, JWN, GIS, HD, WMT, more)

The markets end mixed on the day as the rumor mill surrounding all things Europe and Greece continued to turn in every which way.

Earnings results out this morning helped push up shares of well-known consumer brands H.J. Heinz (HNZ) (full earnings report here) and Campbell Soup (CPB) (report here). On the flipside, investors took some profits in shares of Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) (more here) as well as General Mills (GIS) (read more), which came out and cut its profit guidance this morning. It was a strong week for oil prices (stock symbol USO) and unfortunately for consumers, this trend will likely translate to continued rising gas prices in the near term.

The Guy on TV Said to Buy It…

Investors sometimes miss key market developments, especially when watching business television. It’s tough to glean any real analysis when a pundit on TV gives nothing more than a quick 3-minute rundown of why the stocks they like are headed higher. If you act on everything you hear in these brief snippets, your performance will likely suffer. Timing is everything in investing (particularly in trading), and by the time big trends make the business news stations, the bulk of the move is probably already over.

The key phrase to focus on is “going forward.” Anyone can look to the past and see how well a stock has done. Is the company well-positioned moving forward, though, or are its best days behind it?

Read This Before You Ever Buy Another Income Fund

How closely you watch this little-known metric can make a big difference in the amount of profit you earn from a closed-end fund.
Recent Articles on GlobalDividends.com

Top 10 Financial ETFs

There are currently nearly 40 ETFs oriented to the financial sector. The following analysis features a reasonable list of ETF selections. We believe these constitute the best index-based offerings individuals and financial advisors may utilize.

ETFs are based on indexes tied to well-known index providers including Russell, S&P, Barclays, MSCI, Dow Jones and so forth. Also included are some so-called “enhanced” indexes that attempt to achieve better performance through more active management of the index.

The financial sector has been at the epicenter of economic and stock market woes during the 2008-2011 (and perhaps beyond) periods owing primarily to the housing bubble bust and collapse of security products created to accommodate rising real estate prices. As investors know this collapse has led to ongoing bailouts and bankruptcies. The sector is on the mend to start 2012. It’s quite remarkable that from mid-November to mid-February 2012 (a three month span) many ETFs featured have gained as much as a stunning 50%.  Even the most seasoned issues like XLF have reversed from 25% losses to 12% gains. This puts the entire sector as overbought since this pace of gain is typically unsustainable.

Market Wrap-Up for Feb.14 (BA, STI, BAC, GLD, AAPL, GS, more)

A softer-than-expected retail sales number and a downgrade by Moody’s of several European countries’ debt ratings after the bell yesterday gave investors a slight pause in today’s action. The markets did close well off the lows in the last hour of trading to finish slightly higher.

Aircraft maker Boeing (BA) was up a bit today after announcing its largest plane order ever. A Wall Street downgrade of a couple of financial names, including SunTrust Banks (STI) and Bank of America (BAC) had the overall financial sector lagging. Other familiar names falling included Citigroup (C), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Goldman Sachs (GS). Avon Products (AVP) had a rollercoaster day, closing a touch higher after opening lower following the company’s earnings report. On a non-dividend related note, Apple (AAPL) continue to melt-up and are starting to feel a bit like the Gold (GLD) run we have seen. The shares are now up $ 90 in just the last three weeks alone.

Dividend Tax Chatter Heats up for the Wealthy

News broke yesterday that President Obama, as part of his new budget proposal, is looking to raise the dividend tax rate for married couples earning more than $ 250,000 a year and individuals earning more than $ 200,000. There would also be an additional 3.8 percent tax on the unearned income of couples earning $ 250,000 and individuals making at least $ 200,000. At its worst-case, the tax rate for the wealthy would hit 43.4 percent in federal taxes on their dividends next year, compared to 15% currently for qualified dividends.

17 Stocks Yielding 12%-Plus

I’ve found more than 210 profitable companies paying 12%-plus yields, but most U.S. investors have no idea they even exist.
Recent Articles on GlobalDividends.com

They Just Don’t Get Amazon!

They Just Don’t Get Amazon!




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