For a number of companies, especially those that are counted among the S&P Dividend Aristocrats, boosting the dividend is annual ritual. And dividend fever is now spreading, as many companies and industries that would never have thought of offering up a yield in the past are now doing so.  #-ad_banner-#Thanks to a steady economy and more predictable cash flows, you’ll now find dividends popping up in unusual places, and these three firms show the way. A look at their financial statements suggests that they may become among the most robust dividend boosters of the coming decade. Read More

For a number of companies, especially those that are counted among the S&P Dividend Aristocrats, boosting the dividend is annual ritual. And dividend fever is now spreading, as many companies and industries that would never have thought of offering up a yield in the past are now doing so.  #-ad_banner-#Thanks to a steady economy and more predictable cash flows, you’ll now find dividends popping up in unusual places, and these three firms show the way. A look at their financial statements suggests that they may become among the most robust dividend boosters of the coming decade. 1.    Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL) The airline industry has been through so many booms and busts that dividends were never even an option. One bad year could erase many years of positive cash flow, and such bad years have often led to bankruptcy. But times have changed.  The world’s top airline carriers have established a predictable market, characterized by stable pricing, full planes, and stronger balance sheets. Back in 2011, I noted that Delta Airlines was establishing an unprecedented level of capital planning prudence, and was poised to rewrite the industry rulebook. Read More

The IPO path followed by Twitter (Nasdaq: TWTR) and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is a predictable one.  Many young companies come public with unrealistically high expectations, as sales growth is often front-loaded before the offering (to make the IPO more attractive) and expenses quickly spike after the deal (as the IPO funds start to get deployed into growth initiatives).  #-ad_banner-#As a result, shares often swoon before quarterly results improve. That’s the perfect time to catch a young IPO.   Here are three other companies that have stumbled out of the gate after going public this year — but they’re poised to… Read More

The IPO path followed by Twitter (Nasdaq: TWTR) and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is a predictable one.  Many young companies come public with unrealistically high expectations, as sales growth is often front-loaded before the offering (to make the IPO more attractive) and expenses quickly spike after the deal (as the IPO funds start to get deployed into growth initiatives).  #-ad_banner-#As a result, shares often swoon before quarterly results improve. That’s the perfect time to catch a young IPO.   Here are three other companies that have stumbled out of the gate after going public this year — but they’re poised to win back investors as they finally deliver on the promise they showed as private companies. 1. Opower (Nasdaq: OPWR) After nearly a century of predictable operations, power companies now face a much more challenging landscape. They are wrestling with tightening environmental regulations on their power plants, and they’re watching their customer base slowly gain independence as an increasing number of homeowners and businesses switch to solar power.  To adapt to these changes, they’re seeking out 21st-century data analysis techniques — and many of them are turning to Opower, which provides cloud-based energy usage analytics. This young company, which had just… Read More

In recent weeks, as officers and directors sat down for their periodic board meetings, many of them decided that stock buyback programs are a good use of company funds.   In addition to spending the company’s cash on shares, some of these insiders are spending their own cash to boost their stakes in the company. It’s hard to find a greater vote of confidence than that.  Here are three companies that have recently seen a significant amount of insider buying: 1.    Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH) Here’s a rarely… Read More

In recent weeks, as officers and directors sat down for their periodic board meetings, many of them decided that stock buyback programs are a good use of company funds.   In addition to spending the company’s cash on shares, some of these insiders are spending their own cash to boost their stakes in the company. It’s hard to find a greater vote of confidence than that.  Here are three companies that have recently seen a significant amount of insider buying: 1.    Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH) Here’s a rarely asked question: Do insiders read the research reports on their own companies?  #-ad_banner-#If the insiders at this homebuilder do, they likely were moved to action. Analysts at Sterne Agee boosted their price target to $23 last week, which corresponds with the projected book value in 2015. (Much of the book value assessment comes from an expected reversal of a deferred tax asset (DTA).)   Later in the week, on Aug. 1, five insiders acquired a combined 34,000 shares at an average price of $16.  Those purchases follow a $300,000 buy-in by a separate insider… Read More

When it comes to investing, many moves allow you to play offense or defense. But rarely can you play both angles.  Yet share buybacks hold that unique role. In the current bull market, companies that have been buying back stock have outperformed the pack, as the PowerShares Buyback Achievers ETF (NYSE: PKW) is up around 150% over the past five years, 50 points ahead of the S&P 500 Index.   Yet if the market heads south, buyback plans still have great value. They can be seen as havens of value because the companies conducting… Read More

When it comes to investing, many moves allow you to play offense or defense. But rarely can you play both angles.  Yet share buybacks hold that unique role. In the current bull market, companies that have been buying back stock have outperformed the pack, as the PowerShares Buyback Achievers ETF (NYSE: PKW) is up around 150% over the past five years, 50 points ahead of the S&P 500 Index.   Yet if the market heads south, buyback plans still have great value. They can be seen as havens of value because the companies conducting them usually have very strong balance sheets. And even if they do slump in value when the market sinks, the buyback plans are able to absorb even more stock. That can have an outsized impact on per-share profits.  In fact, the role that buybacks are playing in EPS growth is more significant than you realize: According to a J.P. Morgan study, a significant portion of EPS growth among S&P companies is attributable to buybacks.  I’ve been tracking the buyback activity for the second quarter, and compiled a short list of companies that have just… Read More

A nearly 2% pullback for the S&P 500 shouldn’t be of much concern.  The fact that index had risen for five straight months prior to the pullback suggests a bit of profit-taking was overdue. But it’s the violent nature of the late-month sell-off that has everyone’s attention. What first began as weakness in small caps is now spreading to mid- and large-cap stocks. The question on everyone’s mind: Is the market headed for more severe dips in the weeks and months ahead, or is this just back-filling on the way towards fresh new highs? To answer that question, let’s look… Read More

A nearly 2% pullback for the S&P 500 shouldn’t be of much concern.  The fact that index had risen for five straight months prior to the pullback suggests a bit of profit-taking was overdue. But it’s the violent nature of the late-month sell-off that has everyone’s attention. What first began as weakness in small caps is now spreading to mid- and large-cap stocks. The question on everyone’s mind: Is the market headed for more severe dips in the weeks and months ahead, or is this just back-filling on the way towards fresh new highs? To answer that question, let’s look at the market’s push and pull factors and see where they could lead us. In recent weeks, there has been some concern that the U.S. economy remains on unstable ground. In a few instances, we saw mention of a possible recession in the U.S. in coming quarters. That view seems way off the mark. A wide variety of reports suggests that the U.S. economy is poised for GDP growth in the 3% range of the second half of the year, and perhaps in 2014 as well. Key positives: Job growth remains robust, auto sales in July remained solid, and corporate… Read More

In his groundbreaking 2006 book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” Michael Pollan devoted several chapters to exploring the vast role that corn has come to play in the agricultural economy and in our diets.  Virtually every processed food contains corn or a corn derivative such as corn syrup. Farmers, taking advantage of $0.50-a-bushel subsidies, have made it America’s largest cash crop. According to the EPA, farmers sold roughly $64 billion worth of corn in 2011 (the most recent data available). That’s roughly twice as much as all of the hay, wheat, cotton, sorghum and rice that is sold — combined.  So the… Read More

In his groundbreaking 2006 book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” Michael Pollan devoted several chapters to exploring the vast role that corn has come to play in the agricultural economy and in our diets.  Virtually every processed food contains corn or a corn derivative such as corn syrup. Farmers, taking advantage of $0.50-a-bushel subsidies, have made it America’s largest cash crop. According to the EPA, farmers sold roughly $64 billion worth of corn in 2011 (the most recent data available). That’s roughly twice as much as all of the hay, wheat, cotton, sorghum and rice that is sold — combined.  So the utter collapse in corn prices, thanks to overplanting and favorable weather, is leading to a sharp drop in farm incomes. Farmers that split their acreage between corn and soybeans, the nation’s second-largest cash crop, might at least have hoped for some pricing relief from that diversification. But soybeans are selling at two year lows as well. If you’re keeping score, wheat and cotton prices are also slumping badly.  Though the harvest season isn’t over, it appears that farm incomes will take a big hit in 2014 (though higher yields will offset some of the pain of lower prices). Farmers are… Read More

You may have noticed a consistent theme here at StreetAuthority in recent months: We love emerging markets.  My colleague Austin Hatley recently noted the strong gains investors are reaping this year with this asset class, and I weighed in on how well emerging market stocks have done over many decades. Yet here’s a curious disconnect: Emerging markets represent 33% of all global trading activity, yet few investors have nearly that much invested in emerging-market stocks (and bonds). That figure doesn’t likely exceed 5% or 10% for most of you. But these markets have such great long-term economic growth prospects —… Read More

You may have noticed a consistent theme here at StreetAuthority in recent months: We love emerging markets.  My colleague Austin Hatley recently noted the strong gains investors are reaping this year with this asset class, and I weighed in on how well emerging market stocks have done over many decades. Yet here’s a curious disconnect: Emerging markets represent 33% of all global trading activity, yet few investors have nearly that much invested in emerging-market stocks (and bonds). That figure doesn’t likely exceed 5% or 10% for most of you. But these markets have such great long-term economic growth prospects — relative to the U.S. and Europe — that you can’t afford to ignore them anymore. To be sure, it pays to have a little expertise when navigating distant markets. Back in April, for example, I recommended a pair of excellent mutual funds. Trouble is, they carry expense ratios of 1.50% and 1.51%, respectively. That’s like paying a 1.5% annual tax every year, just for the privilege of owning them. Of course, investors can save money by investing through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), many of which carry expense ratios in the 0.40% to 0.90% range. But you can do even better than… Read More

After digesting Twitter’s (NYSE: TWTR) impressive second-quarter results, investors may have a sense of deja vu.  Just a year earlier, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was staring down a wall of cynicism — and delivered scorching results. Shares delivered huge upside on that second-quarter report a year ago, and went on to deliver even more impressive gains over the following year. #-ad_banner-#Facebook’s problem back then was quite simple: It had a huge user base but wasn’t making much money off of those users. That’s no longer the case. Those same concerns dogged… Read More

After digesting Twitter’s (NYSE: TWTR) impressive second-quarter results, investors may have a sense of deja vu.  Just a year earlier, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was staring down a wall of cynicism — and delivered scorching results. Shares delivered huge upside on that second-quarter report a year ago, and went on to deliver even more impressive gains over the following year. #-ad_banner-#Facebook’s problem back then was quite simple: It had a huge user base but wasn’t making much money off of those users. That’s no longer the case. Those same concerns dogged Twitter, though as I noted last month, the drivers were in place to enable Twitter to deliver much stronger quarterly revenues than analysts had been anticipating. Frankly, Twitter only needed decent upside to see its shares move out of the doghouse. As I wrote in June: “Analysts expect Twitter’s second-quarter sales to rise more than 10% sequentially, which would be good enough to change the tone of conversation around this broken stock. A ‘glass half full’ perspective (instead of ‘half empty’) could push this stock right back to $40.” As it turns out, Twitter did a whole lot better than… Read More

For investors who check the daily finish of the S&P 500, it would appear as if the stock market is the picture of health. That index of large companies stands within 1% of its all-time high. But for the stocks of smaller companies, the seas have grown steadily rougher. The Russell 2000, a small-cap index, is off roughly 5% in the past month and has now seen several rapid pullbacks since the start of the year. This index has seen solid buying support at the 1,100 mark (it currently stands at 1,140) in prior dips, but if the recent pullback… Read More

For investors who check the daily finish of the S&P 500, it would appear as if the stock market is the picture of health. That index of large companies stands within 1% of its all-time high. But for the stocks of smaller companies, the seas have grown steadily rougher. The Russell 2000, a small-cap index, is off roughly 5% in the past month and has now seen several rapid pullbacks since the start of the year. This index has seen solid buying support at the 1,100 mark (it currently stands at 1,140) in prior dips, but if the recent pullback pushes the Russell below the 1,100 threshold, investors may conclude that the bull market for small caps is over and it’s time to focus elsewhere. #-ad_banner-#To be sure, small caps have been in rally mode ever since the bull market began in March 2009. Back then, the Russell 2000 stood below 400. Such stocks always rally coming out of recessions, but as I noted last year, they tend to lag the market in the latter stages of a bull market. We may now be witnessing a grand rotation out of small caps, and if so, you can read… Read More

As President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, investors were in despair. An economy in dire straits had already led to a free-falling market, and things only got worse in the early months of the year. #-ad_banner-#Then, quite suddenly, everything changed. The fear-based selling had exhausted itself. And on March 9, 2009, the S&P 500 would reverse course. The bull market that ensued has surprised even the most bullish investors. Few would have guessed that an economy that never truly recovered from the Great Recession of 2008 would be capable of fueling a 193% gain in the stock market… Read More

As President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, investors were in despair. An economy in dire straits had already led to a free-falling market, and things only got worse in the early months of the year. #-ad_banner-#Then, quite suddenly, everything changed. The fear-based selling had exhausted itself. And on March 9, 2009, the S&P 500 would reverse course. The bull market that ensued has surprised even the most bullish investors. Few would have guessed that an economy that never truly recovered from the Great Recession of 2008 would be capable of fueling a 193% gain in the stock market over the next five and a half years. Here’s a look at five surprising facts about this unusual bull market. 1. Nobody Wants To Lock In Profits In almost any bull market, you’ll see a stretch of gains, followed by a modest pullback, which is then followed by more gains. But in this market, there are no pauses. Though the S&P 500 repeatedly moved above and below its 150-day moving average (MA) in the early stages of the bull market, the market now appears to be on autopilot, inching steadily higher with nary a pullback. The fact that the S&P… Read More