Dividend

Dividend investing in essence is nothing but slow and steady wins the race. Right from being kids to teenager to adulthood, our lives are full of examples of dividend investing. Unknowingly we all embrace it, we all follow it, and we all practice it, and majority of us are successful in it. However, we cannot see it because it may not reflect in greenbacks and bank balances. When we

In one of my earlier posts, I discussed whether a given company should pay dividends. I presented my thoughts and observations on the rationale that developing business does not provide dividends, while mature businesses are more inclined to give dividends to shareholders. I also mentioned that both sides of the arguments are correct and individual investors need to look at from their own invest

During the week, I read articles from fellow bloggers and participate in blog carnivals. Once a week I highlight some of the articles that I enjoyed reading. I have named this section as Dividend Tree Potpourri. Similar to a potpourri, this section will be a collection of posts from fellow bloggers which will spread the constructive scent of differing viewpoints. My Articles in Blogosph

I have identified my goal and formulated a plan for my dividend portfolio. When I am executing this plan, I need to know exactly how I am doing relative to the overall market. It also helps me evaluate how my strategy is performing. I use few different parameters to measure my portfolio performance. Benchmark: I use S&P500 based exchange traded fund, SPY, as a benchmark for my divide

Today it is exactly one month since I started actively posting on Dividend Tree. It is a very short time frame, but it feels like I have been doing this for a long time. It has been quite an experience from: early pessimism turning into encouraging optimism;time wrenching schedule impacts to a regular feature in my daily routine;extreme frustration of staring at HTML code to “oh!

In order to make my holdings public, I contemplated a lot about how much detail and what information I would be comfortable with in sharing with readers of this blog spot. In the end, I narrowed it down to the parameters that would be relevant to the themes, objectives, issues that I discuss on this blog spot. This will be a good location where one can find how my investments will evolve over a

During the week, I read articles from fellow blogger and participate in blog carnivals. Once a week I plan on highlighting some of the articles that I enjoyed reading. I have named this section as Dividend Tree Potpourri. Similar to a potpourri, this section will be a collection of posts from fellow bloggers which will spread the constructive scent of differing viewpoints. My Articles i

Whether assessee was entitled to claim deduction of loss incurred on sale of units of mutual fund purchased by the assessee for two days to get the benefit of the dividend income under section 10(33)? Vaneet Jain v. CIT, Panchkula (2007) 158 Taxman 410 (Punj. & Har.) 13 Relevant section: 28(i) "The assessee had made investment for the purchase of units of mutual fund for Rs. 5 lakhs along

In my investment process, I have mentioned about my 2020 dividend cash flow goals. I am targeting to achieve a dividend-based cash flow of $30,000 by year end 2020. In this post, I am discussing a back-of-envelope empirical exercise to demonstrate the feasibility of achieving this goal. At end of year 2008 the dividend champion list has 128 companies. The annual dividends that these compani

With the market down significantly there are a lot of stocks with attractive yields on their dividends. Its not too hard to find blue chip, large cap stocks with yields in the 4-7% range. You can also find ETFs paying yields in the 4-9% range. A high dividend stock or ETF gives you both a fixed income return and potential for stock price growth.I've decided to invest in high dividend stocks

This is the first time I will be making my investing goals public. In addition, I also plan to provide quarterly reviews on how I am making progress. My dividend portfolio consists of two investments buckets. One bucket consists of dividend stocks, and the second bucket consists of dividend ETFs/CEFs. Since both of them provide dividend cash flow, I review both in combination (and not stand

The purpose of my starting this blog spot is to share my journey in achieving my investment goals. In the process, I expect to continue my learning process by discussing contrasting views, and hopefully make smaller mistakes. Continuing with my motto of keeping things simple, this page describes my seven step investment process in a broader context. I foresee that over a period of time, this pag

The third theme in the El-Erian’s market collision commentary is the money flow due to sovereign wealth funds. As per an article on Wikipedia, the top 20 sovereign wealth funds have a total of approximately 2.7 trillion dollars (and up to 3.3 trillions including all SWFs). A major portion of this money, if not all, is invested in safest and most liquid US government treasuries. This is a very

Pfizer fails to hike its dividend for the first time since man walked on the moon, and Best Buy jumps on good news. Best Buy Shares Up 15% On Earnings Best Buy (nyse: BBY - news - people ) shares are up over 15% so far Tuesday morning, despite profits dropping 77% to $52 million, or 13 [...]

In today’s post, I will discuss how El-Erian’s emerging market theme affects the dividend investors (DIs). Some of the characteristics that we DIs look for in a company are as follows: Management’s sincere conviction that shareholders have stake in the business and earnings must be shared with them;Dividends are paid from operating earnings;Consistent growth in dividends can be maintai

In the last post, I presented El-Erian’s major themes that are significantly affecting the financial markets. Taking these themes as a framework, the author presents the asset allocation model that was used under his stewardship at Harvard Endowment Fund. The asset allocation model can be found here and here. The discussion of the asset allocation in this book should be viewed as reflectio

In the earlier post I discussed about the goals that I have for my dividend portfolio. In order to achieve that goal, I have come up with few investment principles and rules that I follow and strictly abide by. While I have been dabbling with investing for sometime now, I always had certain criteria at the back of my mind. I never had it formalized and documented resulting in lack of investing d

If I do not know where to go, how can I start the journey? This seems to be a very simple question we face day-in and day-out. But when it comes to investment plans, in general, most of the individuals fall short in identifying the defined final destination. In this post, I will discuss what is my vision and what would I like to achieve in my dividend portfolio. I have started planting the divi

Last week S&P 500 had its largest weekly increase since 1974. Most investors are wondering if the bottom is in after the broad US index average bounced off its 11 year lows it had reached a week earlier. It was a week where Bloomberg reported stock dividends disappearing at the fastest rate since 1950s. According to the article the recession and global credit crunch are reducing profits for th

By David Van Knapp Van Knapp is the author of two books on stock investing. The first is Sensible Stock Investing: How to Pick, Value, and Manage Stocks, which has a 5-star reader rating on Amazon.com.The second is The Top 40 Dividend Stocks for 2008: How (and Why) to Build a Cash Machine of Dividend Stocks. Over time, studies show that dividend stocks have the best total returns. To see a complet

As part of my long term dividend strategy, I tend to buy and hold a portfolio of several dividend growth stocks. If a company keeps increasing their dividends or at least maintains it, I would keep holding the stock. If the company however decided to cut its payment for whatever reason, I lose confidence in the business model and immediately try to sell my position.Some fellow bloggers do not agre

3 resilient dividend stock lists - [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Like most investors still braving this market I keep trying to find a safe place to invest that provides decent returns. With a stock market that seems to have many more down days than up days, it is hard to have confidence in future growth prospects. However with interest rates falling rapidly, saving money in even the best of high yield savings accounts seems to offer little return in real terms

Last week there were several companies that cut or suspended their dividend payments. As part of my studies to uncover market inefficiencies pertaining to dividend stocks I am measuring the performance of those dividend suspenders or cutters. As part of my sample I am measuring stocks which trade at least several hundred thousand shares per day. I am also measuring the decline or advance based off

As I might not have time later this month, and because Anheuser-Busch (BUD) was bought by InBev for $70 a share, I decided to update the Buy and Hold Forever Dividend Portfolio. This and all future updates will be posted here. The spreadsheet tracking the portfolio is available on the original post and here.I didn't think BUD would be bought at all. And if it were bought, I didn't think it would h

Last week the markets continued their roller coaster ride, sending most investors accounts to new five year lows. On Thursday the S&P 500 broke through its October lows and reached its lowest level since 2003, before recovering the very same day.There were still several stocks had some major dividend increases over the past week. Other stocks like General Electric (GE) didn’t deliver such ex

In my blog, Dividend Growth Investor, I am always trying to find out the best dividend stocks which would provide me with a dividend income stream that would increase above the levels of inflation for many decades to come. If I didn’t have any time to go through all the hassle of picking individual dividend stocks however, I would have turned to dividend ETF’s.I have stated several reasons why

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has found itself under a "smart money" controversy, which may be an argument about the reality of the rules and regulations... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

American Capital Strategies announced that it will be acquiring all of the ordinary shares of European Capital held by other investors. European Capital shareholders will be getting about 1/3 of ACAS share in exchange for their stock. Furthermore ACAS announced that it won't pay any more dividends for the remainder of 2008.This doesn't really come as a shock to me as ACAS stock price has been fall

Warren Buffett is the greatest investor in America. The famous value investor topped Forbes richest individuals list in 2008, overthrowing his pal Bill Gates from Microsoft from his twelve year period of holding this title. Investors have long followed Buffett’s advice on stock selection, economic issues and his pure genius common sense and business acumen. In a previous post I highlighted the i

In a recent report Standard and Poors predicted that dividend growth will slow in 2008 and probably become negative in 2009 as more industries are affected by the current economic slowdown. There were several dividend cuts and eliminations last week. Stocks that cut or eliminate their dividends tend to underperform the S&P 500 over time. It’s interesting to note that investors reacted diffe

(4-traders.com) Hamilton, Bermuda, November 10th, 2008 We refer to the 3Q08 dividend and earnings report announced Friday November 7th, 2008. The record date is November 21st, 2008 with expected payment date December 2nd,...-AM-TANKER-13682/news/NORDIC-AM-TANKER-the-Company-NYSE-NAT-Record-date-for-3Q08-dividend-13072963/

I regularly check the wires for companies which are increasing dividends. That way I have another control which would enable me to find promising dividend growers to add to my watchlist for accumulation. This week there were several companies announcing healthy dividend raises to shareholders.Emerson Electric (EMR),a diversified global technology company, announced that its Board has approved a 10

I wrote previously about using deep in the money covered calls to boost your dividend yield. Basically, when you do a buy write and use the lowest strike price possible, you end up purchasing shares of a stock for a fraction of their trading price. If those shares pay dividends, your yield is substantially higher than if you buy the shares without writing the call.Commissions included (also accoun

In a previous post I outlined the 5 best performing year to date dividend aristocrats. The 5 worst performing dividend aristocrats so far in 2008 include:Gannett Co. (GCI) has been hit hard this year as its profits have slipped due to the weakness in the advertising market. Furthermore there is evidence pointing that newspapers are losing readership to the free online news sites. GCI recently conf

The markets have been pretty bearish for investors this year as news about banks failures, the economic slowdown as well as the rise and fall in commodities prices have created havoc in the hearts of individual investors. In these volatile market conditions even a well diversified portfolio would have had a hard time making money as globalization in the financial markets lead to bear market declin

Last week was marked by more volatility which doesn’t seem to surprise anyone. Luckily this time the direction was up as the stock market had its best week since 1974, mainly fueled by the half a percentage point interest cut by the Federal Reserve as well the smaller than expected contraction in the GDP.During those large swings up and down it is easy for investors to lose focus on the big pict

This year's market turbulence has many investors calling the buy and hold strategy dead. Let's prove them wrong. My musings (here and here) on holding dividend paying stocks forever have inspired me to make a new, all dividend paying stock model portfolio.It's composed of 43 stocks and one ETF, and is based on minimal research (more research is always better, but the goal here is to show how it do

The falling stock prices have pushed dividend yields on major US indices like S&P 500 and Dow Jones to levels not seen since the early 1990’s. The current trailing 12 month dividend rate for the Dow Diamonds ETF (DIA) that tracks Dow Industrials average is $ 3.02, which makes for a dividend yield of 3.64%.The current trailing 12 month dividend rate for the SPDRs ETF (SPY) which tracks the S&

Last week we saw further market volatility as major indexes continued extending their losses for October, which could turn out to be the worst month for the markets since 1938. There was an announcement from S&P which decreased the expected dividend growth for 2008 to 1.20% and also provided a cautionary outlook for dividends and earnings in 2009.Despite all the doom and gloom there were sever

These are just some random thoughts I've had recently. There are probably a few errors in my thinking below, but I still consider it worth thinking about and posting. A previous post on the subject can be found here.Companies can be categorized in all sorts of ways, like small caps, consumer discretionary, industrials, etc. Two general categories are dividend paying companies and non-dividend payi

↑ Grab this Headline Animator Many foreign stocks that have great dividend yields are now trading under $10. The following is a list of such stocks that meet the conditions: Stock Price (as of Oct 24,2008) : < $10 Dividend Yield: Greater than or Equal to 5.00% Dividends may be cut or reduced at any time. However in this [...] More on this topic (What's this?)

Get Your Six Flags Coupon Code Up to 50% OFF TODAYFinancialWire-October 20, 2008-Six Flags Will Not Pay Quarterly PIERS Dividend (C)2008 Investrend Communications, Inc.October 20, 2008 (FinancialWire) -- Six Flags, Inc. (NYSE: SIX) (Current Market Cap: US$38.56 Mil.) said that its board has decided not to declare and pay a quarterly dividend on its outstanding Preferred Income Equity Redeemable Se

The Standard&Poors maintains several dividend indexes containing some quality large cap stocks for aspiring dividend investors.The indexes are:- The S&P Dividend Aristocrats Index which measures the performance of S&P 500 index constituents that have followed a policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years. You could view the current list of

↑ Grab this Headline Animator Stocks that pay dividends are always better than the ones that don’t pay.Its true that dividends are not guaranteed and that they can be reduced or canceled at any time. Companies like Washington Mutual(WU), National City(NCC), Bank of America(BAC) are some recent examples.However in the long run, dividends form a significant [...]

Ever since Cramer went on the Today Show and advised investors with shorter term goals to sell stocks if they planned to hold for less than five years, he’s been mostly been ostracized in the news. I do believe however that this was a useful piece of advice for anyone that needs the money in less than half a decade from now. Jim Cramer gave another good piece of advice last week when he advised

I am receiving dividend from cooperative bank.Coop banks are paying full tax before paying dividend.So my question is that whether I have to pay income tax on dividend ? Whether it will amount to double taxation?Please clarify and guide.Shrivallabh Randad , PuneThe dividend from co-operative society is taxable in hand of recipient of dividend and yes, it amounts to double taxation.As far as double

Three readers asked me three separate questions on dividend investing. The first one was whether now it was a good time to stick to a dividend investment strategy. The second question was about the amount of money necessary to start dividend investing. The third one was wondering whether it wouldn’t be a bad idea to actually maintain an asset allocation that includes bonds whenever investors beg

There are a number of covered call income strategies. A traditional strategy is buying a stock and writing out of the money near or midterm calls on it. The goal is to keep the stock for the long term while generating income from it. Another strategy with a similar goal is buying deep in the money LEAP calls and selling near or midterm out of the money "covered" calls on them.With stocks that pay

Last week was characterized by massive sell offs by investors, which fear that the worst is definitely going to happen. Despite the fact that the bailout plan was approved by congress, that didn’t improve investors’ sentiments. The US stock markets had the worst week ever. The 50% dividend cut from Bank of America (BAC) on Monday, which fellow blogger David Templeton reported on didn’t help

Most investors were scared from the severe drops in global stock markets last week, caused by the freezing of the debt markets and the global recession fears which the tightening of the credit markets might cause. Most stocks have suffered double digit percentage losses since the start of the year, even after yesterdays record rally. It’s no place to panic however. Historically the average durat

After last week’s stock market crash worldwide some investors are trying to bottom feed on some of the battered stocks. There are plenty of stocks with great dividend yields.Some of the stocks have fallen so much that they now trade for under $10. The following is a list of foreign bank stocks under $10 that trade [...]

All else equal, is it better to own a company with a higher or lower dividend yield? Theoretically, ignoring certain tax implications, it makes no difference. The company with the lower dividend gets to re-invest the retained earnings to generate more cash in the future that makes up for the current lower payout.In practice, however, companies with higher dividend yields actually outperform the ma

On April 14, 2008 I wrote about the Allscripts (MDRX) / Misys (MSY) Merger (announced in mid-late March). Since then the merger has been discussed a bit more on the member’s-only discussion board. For some time there was uncertainty about the merger due to lending issues (Lehman Bros. collapse). Today it was announced that the [...]

The markets ended September with a big decline in the major indexes. Last week the volatility of the past month continued as stocks traded like a yo-yo – falling 777 points after congress failed to approve the 700 billion dollar bailout, and then rising 500 points before hitting new 52 week lows by the end of the week after the bailout was approved.There was some negative dividend news from S&am

The stock markets are in turmoil.Hell,the whole global economy is reeling.Where does one go and park their money with the stock markets playing with the Investor sentiments.Well,the purists will tell you to keep cash in hand and wait for the right time.But then,who knows when the right time will come.But,a true stock market believer that i am,I cannot buy the idea of staying away from the markets

I have purchased a few shares of Newell Rubbermaid (NWL) and will look to purchase some additional shares of at the stock as the consumer products market starts to make a comeback. Here is a review of NWL:Newell Rubbermaid (NWL) is a global marketer of consumer and commercial products with sales of approximately $6 billion and a strong portfolio of brands, including Sharpie®, Paper Mate®, DYMO®

Iconic fast food chain McDonalds (MCD) has raised their dividend from $0.375/share to $0.50/share. This represents an increase of 33%. McDonalds' global sales were credited as fuel for the pay out raise.The company has raised its dividend each year since the company began paying one in 1976.Here is a glance at the company's recent dividend history:2004-$0.55 2005- $0.672006-$1.002007-$1.502008-$1

I received a lot of e-mails from subscribers on Monday after the collapse of Wachovia, asking me which bank I believe will be the next to fail. Most investors are afraid they will wake up next Monday morning with a worthless financial stock, whose deposits have been sold to another institution.I think that the answer to that question is to simply follow the money. Most of the financial institution

The past several months have been characterized by tremendous volatility and a lot of negative news regarding the state of the economy as a whole. Given the uncertainties in the global economy, investors are wondering whether they should cash out their portfolios and simply wait for the storm to end.I think that this would not be a good move, especially for the dividend investor who already has a

One thing is certain, Standard & Poor's Dividend Aristocrats are holding their own in this difficult market environment. Year to date through September 27, 2008, the Aristocrat's total return equals -4.9% versus the S&P 500 Index return of -17.4%. The below spreadsheet details specific information for each Aristocrat. The entire Aristocrat 9.27.2008 spreadsheet is available at this link.Th

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net September 19, 2008.Recently I received an interesting book on dividend investing, titled “The top 40 Dividend Stocks for 2008 – how and why to build a cash machine of Dividend Stocks”, written by David P. Van Knapp. The author, who also maintains the site sensiblestocks.com, decided to skip the publishers altogether and has his book available t

Record date for dividend is 29 September 2008ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has declared dividend under the dividend option of four Funds namely,1. ICICI Prudential Interval Fund II-Quarterly Interval Plan F,2. ICICI Prudential Fixed Maturity Plan-Series 38 - One Year Plan D3. ICICI Prudential Fixed Maturity Plan Series 42 - Thirteen Months Plan B4. ICICI Prudential Fixed Maturity Plan -Series 42 -

Record date for dividend is 29 September 2008Kotak Mutual Fund has declared dividend under the dividend option of Kotak Fixed Maturity Plan 12M Series 2. The fund house has fixed 29 September 2008 as the record date for the payment of dividend.The fund house has decided to distribute 100% of surplus available under dividend plan as on record date. The NAV of the scheme under retail plan was record

Record date is 29 September 2008Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has declared dividend under dividend option for the below mentioned funds. The record date for declaration of dividend is 29 September 2008.The details are as follows:Name of the SchemePlan/OptionDividend (%)Re. per unit on face value of Rs 10 per unit #NAV as on 23 September 2008 (Rs)Birla Sun Life Interval Income Fund-Quarterly Plan-Seri

  A review about 3 Australian bank stocks that pay great dividends and have above average dividend growth rates.In the current market conditions nobody knows exactly where financials and in general the markets are heading. A simple and effective strategy now maybe to nibble a few foreign stocks that pay high dividends. One group that fits [...]

Record date for dividend is 25 September 2008DBS Chola Mutual Fund announced 25 September 2008 as the record date for declaration of dividend for regular plan with quarterly dividend plan of DBS Chola Monthly Income Plan.The fund house has decided to distribute a dividend of Rs 0.30 per unit on the face value of Rs 10. The NAV for the scheme was Rs.12.1165 as on 18 September 2008.DBS Chola Monthly

Record date for dividend is 25 September 2008Tata Mutual Fund has announced the declaration of dividend under quarterly dividend option for Tata Fixed Income Portfolio Fund-Scheme B3. The record date is set as 25 September 2008.The AMC decided to distribute up to 100% of the returns generated between 30 June 2008 to 25 September 2008 as dividend. The face value of the unit is Rs 10.The NAV under r

Record date for dividend is 24 September 2008The Principle Pnb mutual fund has announced the declaration of dividend under dividend option of schemes namely: Principal Monthly Income Plan, Principal Monthly Income Plan- MIP Plus, Principal Government Securities Fund and Principal Income Fund.The record date for dividend will be 24 September 2008.The details are as follow:No.Scheme NameRate of Divi

Record date for dividend is 25 September 2008Reliance Mutual Fund has announced 25 September 2008 record date for declaration of dividend on the face value of Rs 10 per unit for the following mentioned schemes:Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund -IV Series- 4, Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund -IV Series- 6, Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund -IV Series-7 and Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund-IX Series –9The above mention

I have added Corning (GLW) to my watch list and will look at the stock as a possible buy over the next few months. Here is a review of GLW:GLW makes high technology fiber optics for the global telecom industry and high performance glass components for the personal computer and television maker industries. Their primary business segments as of the first half of 2008 are display technologies which i

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net September 12, 2008.All investors have weaknesses that prevent them from achieving their long term goals. Some like to chase hot technology stocks while others tend to use excessive leverage in order to magnify their expected risks and returns. My biggest weakness as a dividend investor is that I am easily attracted by higher yielding instruments stoc

Recently I received an interesting book on dividend investing, titled “The top 40 Dividend Stocks for 2008 – how and why to build a cash machine of Dividend Stocks”, written by David P. Van Knapp. The author, who also maintains the site sensiblestocks.com, decided to skip the publishers altogether and has his book available to readers online in a PDF format. That made it easier for him to pr

This blog rarely discusses political issues, as my goal for writing posts is to mainly educate people on investing, without trying to influence them how to spend their money or live their lives. I recently stumbled a NY Times article, which summarized the candidates’ views on dividend taxation. Most of you might remember that prior to the 2003 tax law change, which made qualified dividends taxab

All investors have weaknesses that prevent them from achieving their long term goals. Some like to chase hot technology stocks while others tend to use excessive leverage in order to magnify their expected risks and returns. My biggest weakness as a dividend investor is that I am easily attracted by higher yielding instruments stocks, bonds and mutual funds.In our society of instant gratification

One of my favorite stock lists that includes quality dividend stocks is the Dividend Aristocrats list, maintained by Standard & Poors. In order for a company to qualify for membership in this elite group it has to have increased its dividend payments to shareholders for at least 25 consecutive years.The typical dividend aristocrat is a mature company that has weathered the storms of many boom

One of my favorite stock lists that includes quality dividend stocks is the Dividend Aristocrats list, maintained by Standard & Poors. In order for a company to qualify for membership in this elite group it has to have increased its dividend payments to shareholders for at least 25 consecutive years.The typical dividend aristocrat is a mature company that has weathered the storms of many boom

Photo: British VI Beach One of the dividend indices from Mergent is the “Mergent International Dividend Achievers”. The constituents for this index are selected based on the following condition: “To become eligible for inclusion in the International Dividend Achievers Index a stock must be incorporated outside the United States , trade on the NYSE, NASDAQ [...]

The September issue of Argus Research's Argus Update newsletter provides a list of stocks the firm titles as Dialing for Dividends. The screen is based on the following criteria:A market value of at least $1 billionA dividend yield of at least 3%, but less than 6%A dividend payout ratio of less than 50%Dividend growth of at least 8% per year over five yearsA forward P/E of less than 15(click on ta