If I asked you to name one of America’s greatest companies, then I would undoubtedly receive a wide range of responses. Many might say Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for the way it transformed our daily lives with its revolutionary mobile devices. Some would choose Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), which generates a staggering $437 billion in annual sales. Still others might point to Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), an iconic business whose beloved movies, characters and theme parks are enjoyed by millions. There is no right or wrong answer, merely opinion. The point is to provoke a… Read More

If I asked you to name one of America’s greatest companies, then I would undoubtedly receive a wide range of responses. Many might say Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) for the way it transformed our daily lives with its revolutionary mobile devices. Some would choose Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), which generates a staggering $437 billion in annual sales. Still others might point to Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), an iconic business whose beloved movies, characters and theme parks are enjoyed by millions. There is no right or wrong answer, merely opinion. The point is to provoke a discussion of which attributes make a company “great.” Is it popular products? Dominant market share? Colossal sales? Sky-high profit margins? I, for one, would say none of the above. Let me explain… #-ad_banner-#In The 1927 New York Yankees baseball team is widely regarded as the best team in baseball history. For decades pundits have swooned over the team’s high winning percentage, massive number of home runs and a whole host of other absurd statistics. But none of those stats made the team great; they were simply the byproduct of a great… Read More

They’ve officially become more popular than dividends. Top companies are shelling out these extra payments in droves. The goal is to give shareholders more bang for their investment buck than dividends alone. They are a favorite of Warren Buffett and many other billionaire investors. There’s a good chance you’ve received one of these “tax-free dividends” before and didn’t even realize it. That’s because they’re buried in a company’s financial statement. But since 1982, when the SEC enacted a rule called 10b-18 as a measure of boosting the economy, these “tax-free dividends” have become a favored form of payment among shareholders. Read More

They’ve officially become more popular than dividends. Top companies are shelling out these extra payments in droves. The goal is to give shareholders more bang for their investment buck than dividends alone. They are a favorite of Warren Buffett and many other billionaire investors. There’s a good chance you’ve received one of these “tax-free dividends” before and didn’t even realize it. That’s because they’re buried in a company’s financial statement. But since 1982, when the SEC enacted a rule called 10b-18 as a measure of boosting the economy, these “tax-free dividends” have become a favored form of payment among shareholders. And companies have responded. Just look at the chart below to see how companies have been paying shareholders since 1982, especially since 2005 (hint: it hasn’t been just with traditional dividends)… Now, not every company pays these “tax-free dividends,” but the easiest way to identify which ones are making “tax-free dividend” payments is to explain the payment method itself. As I mentioned, its roots trace back to 1982. It was an awful time for the U.S. economy. We were in a recession, and still suffering from the aftershocks of gas rationing and oil shortages of the 1970s. Loans… Read More

We’ve still got about two weeks to go until April 15 (thankfully). But the clock is ticking, and most of us will need to start gathering W-2s, brokerage statements and other information to file our tax returns soon (if you haven’t already). If you’re like me, all those dividends and interest payments that you cheered through the year will start to elicit more of a groan once the distributions are tallied up and reported to Uncle Sam. #-ad_banner-#If you’re in the upper income tax brackets and haven’t done so already, now may be an opportune time to explore options in… Read More

We’ve still got about two weeks to go until April 15 (thankfully). But the clock is ticking, and most of us will need to start gathering W-2s, brokerage statements and other information to file our tax returns soon (if you haven’t already). If you’re like me, all those dividends and interest payments that you cheered through the year will start to elicit more of a groan once the distributions are tallied up and reported to Uncle Sam. #-ad_banner-#If you’re in the upper income tax brackets and haven’t done so already, now may be an opportune time to explore options in the municipal bond arena. As you may know, muni bonds are used to fund things like roads, schools and bridges in cities all over the country. They are generally exempt from federal taxes, and possibly state taxes as well, depending on where you live and where the bond was issued. I’ve had several of my High-Yield Investing readers ask about muni bonds over the past few weeks. This is an asset class we’ve invested in before, albeit sparingly. My biggest problem with this particular group is that I think it’s only suitable for a portion of readers (lower income readers… Read More

In the world of income investing, dividends reign supreme. Treasuries and CDs are offering historically low yields and are no longer considered the ultra-safe cash generators that they once were. #-ad_banner-#In previous issues of StreetAuthority Daily, I detailed the raw power of dividend investing (here) and taught you my method for finding these high yielders (here), but this isn’t the whole story. You see, there’s a little-known group of stocks that offer huge dividend payouts, but their yields are not displayed to the public on financial websites like Yahoo! Finance or Morningstar. This phenomenon… Read More

In the world of income investing, dividends reign supreme. Treasuries and CDs are offering historically low yields and are no longer considered the ultra-safe cash generators that they once were. #-ad_banner-#In previous issues of StreetAuthority Daily, I detailed the raw power of dividend investing (here) and taught you my method for finding these high yielders (here), but this isn’t the whole story. You see, there’s a little-known group of stocks that offer huge dividend payouts, but their yields are not displayed to the public on financial websites like Yahoo! Finance or Morningstar. This phenomenon is due to a glitch in the way the financial media reports certain companies’ financial information. We call this group of stocks “Hidden High Yielders.” And if you know where to look, you can find companies yielding three, six… even seven times more than the yield posted on financial websites. For Hidden High Yielders, their true payout is actually much higher because there are dozens of supplemental dividends that go unreported each quarter. But by “unreported,” I don’t mean some secret way of transferring cash to a select group of well-connected insiders. Read More

With the exception of energy, 2014 was a good year for nearly all of the major market sectors. Healthcare, utilities, technology, consumer staples and other groups have all logged healthy double-digit gains. But when you examine performance by market capitalization rather than by sector, a different story unfolds. Read More

As a value investor, I hate to overpay. That’s not just true of stocks, but pretty much anything else… tools, lawn equipment, you name it. My kids call that cheap, but they don’t really understand.  #-ad_banner-#The goal isn’t just to buy the cheapest option in any particular category. In some cases, I buy the top-of-the line model. What matters is the relationship between price (what you pay) and value (what you get). In short, I strive to get my money’s worth and maximize my returns.  But how do we determine value? Price… Read More

As a value investor, I hate to overpay. That’s not just true of stocks, but pretty much anything else… tools, lawn equipment, you name it. My kids call that cheap, but they don’t really understand.  #-ad_banner-#The goal isn’t just to buy the cheapest option in any particular category. In some cases, I buy the top-of-the line model. What matters is the relationship between price (what you pay) and value (what you get). In short, I strive to get my money’s worth and maximize my returns.  But how do we determine value? Price is right there in black and white, but value can be much harder to quantify. Usually, the best way to approximate what an asset is worth involves comparisons to similar items.  In real estate, home appraisals are based on comparisons to other properties of similar age and square footage in the surrounding neighborhood. And if you’re trying to assess the value of a pre-owned 2009 Honda Accord, there are resources to see what other buyers have paid for that particular make and model. Armed with this information, you have a much better idea of… Read More

Most people know the name Wayne Gretzky. #-ad_banner-#For years he was nearly universally regarded as the best hockey player in the world. Yet his astounding success had very little to do with superior athletic abilities. “A good hockey player skates to where the puck is,” Gretzky would say. “A great hockey player skates to where the puck is going.” Although investing doesn’t require the same physical prowess as hockey, this same principle is key to identifying stocks at the cusp of a big upward move. You see, the… Read More

Most people know the name Wayne Gretzky. #-ad_banner-#For years he was nearly universally regarded as the best hockey player in the world. Yet his astounding success had very little to do with superior athletic abilities. “A good hockey player skates to where the puck is,” Gretzky would say. “A great hockey player skates to where the puck is going.” Although investing doesn’t require the same physical prowess as hockey, this same principle is key to identifying stocks at the cusp of a big upward move. You see, the key lies in spotting big picture themes that are likely to unfold, and then understanding the likely winners or losers based on these long-established relationships in the global market. Let’s be clear: I’m not talking about localized events that could be gone tomorrow, but big-picture developments that could take months or years to play out. For example, when the world began recognizing the potential of fracking and horizontal drilling to optimize the extraction of natural resources from shale rock formations, it was obvious that well-positioned oil and gas producers would benefit. But, those who… Read More

Currently, the Federal Reserve is crushing savers and income investors by keeping interest rates near zero. #-ad_banner-#But the good news is that there are dozens of safe ways to make 10 times more than you would by investing in a CD or a Treasury bill. In fact, there are currently 288 stocks that yield more than 10%, 173 that yield more than 12% and 95 yielding 15% or more. While not all stocks yielding double digits are good investments, owning a handful of reliable dividend payers is the safest, easiest way to build wealth. Read More

Currently, the Federal Reserve is crushing savers and income investors by keeping interest rates near zero. #-ad_banner-#But the good news is that there are dozens of safe ways to make 10 times more than you would by investing in a CD or a Treasury bill. In fact, there are currently 288 stocks that yield more than 10%, 173 that yield more than 12% and 95 yielding 15% or more. While not all stocks yielding double digits are good investments, owning a handful of reliable dividend payers is the safest, easiest way to build wealth. n fact, 156 years of data prove that owning dividend paying stocks and reinvesting those dividends beats all other investment approaches hands down. If you’re skeptical consider this: Anyone who invested $1,000 in the S&P 500 in 1950 would have $1,033,799 today as long as they reinvested the dividends. Without dividend reinvestment, that figure shrinks to a measly $117,471. So why does investing in dividend payers make such a difference? Because these are the stocks that often perform the best, even during periods of extreme market turmoil. Take… Read More

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but the odds are stacked against you when it comes to “beating the market.” By nearly 6 to 1 in fact… Investment analysts, advisors and fund managers — the so-called experts — spend their entire working lives and billions of dollars on research vowing to “beat the market” in any given year — yet the vast majority of them fail… Just look at mutual fund industry’s record. In the past three years, just 14% of actively-managed mutual fund managers matched or exceeded the… Read More

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but the odds are stacked against you when it comes to “beating the market.” By nearly 6 to 1 in fact… Investment analysts, advisors and fund managers — the so-called experts — spend their entire working lives and billions of dollars on research vowing to “beat the market” in any given year — yet the vast majority of them fail… Just look at mutual fund industry’s record. In the past three years, just 14% of actively-managed mutual fund managers matched or exceeded the market’s performance according to Standard & Poor’s. So how are the small minority beating the market? After years of research, we’ve found that more often than not, investors who keep these two rules in mind when choosing stocks have been proven to collect higher dividend yields and consistently beat the S&P 500… #-ad_banner-#Dividend payers beat non-dividend payers. It probably comes as no surprise that, over time, investing in companies that return money to shareholders in the form of dividend payments make a much better investment than putting money in stocks… Read More

Have you ever noticed the abundance of articles with catchy titles? “Five Favorite Stocks Of The 1%” “Secret Money Management Tricks Of The Super-Wealthy?” #-ad_banner-#It’s easy to see the appeal of these articles for everyday investors. After all, that’s the whole purpose of investing — to build wealth. Who better to assist with that aspiration than the rich? Surely, they know a few things we don’t. I worked with affluent high net-worth clients for years, and while most are knowledgeable about business and… Read More

Have you ever noticed the abundance of articles with catchy titles? “Five Favorite Stocks Of The 1%” “Secret Money Management Tricks Of The Super-Wealthy?” #-ad_banner-#It’s easy to see the appeal of these articles for everyday investors. After all, that’s the whole purpose of investing — to build wealth. Who better to assist with that aspiration than the rich? Surely, they know a few things we don’t. I worked with affluent high net-worth clients for years, and while most are knowledgeable about business and industry, that doesn’t always mean they are financial gurus. These articles are often entertaining and informative, but they typically don’t have a real impact on my portfolio. But when a decorated portfolio manager, such as Mario Gabelli, says to avoid telecom and overweight commodities, or when Franklin Templeton’s Mark Mobius says it’s time to double down on emerging-market debt, I pay attention. I’m a voracious reader of annual reports and other shareholder communiques where fund managers enlighten us with their commentary and outlooks. But really, the simplest and most direct way… Read More