My friend Barbara phoned and invited me to lunch a few weeks ago. When she offered to pay, I knew something was up. Barbara talked about her workout routine, her daughter’s job search, and her upcoming vacation to Panama. After asking me a cursory question or two,… Read More

Powerful factors are aligning. These forces clearly point to an increase in the price of oil. Consider: Worldwide petroleum use is increasing. A slight pullback caused by the recession notwithstanding, global demand for oil is on the rise as China and other emerging-market countries… Read More

In each issue of High-Yield Investing, we include a “Dividend-Capture Dates” section. The strategy is pretty simple: You buy a dividend-paying stock right before it’s… Read More

It’s no secret that emerging economies like China and Brazil have grown at a solid clip during the past year while most of the rest of the world has been mired in recession. But did you know that one member of the developed world also bucked the… Read More

The recession has been tough on companies that pay dividends. According to Standard and Poor’s, companies in the S&P 500 cut dividends -21% from 2008 levels. That’s the worst year for dividend cuts both on a dollar and percentage basis since 1938. Read More

Last week a colleague of mine put a clipping from The Wall Street Journal on my desk. To be honest, the headline of the article — “Last Year’s Dividend Slash Was $58 Billion” — caught me a little off guard. Read More

A 13% yield — these days or any other — is impressive for any company. Fewer than 50 out of the thousands listed on U.S. exchanges can match that payout. Such a robust yield is a show-stopper on its own,… Read More

A year ago, high-yield bonds were outcasts. The financial world braced for Armageddon, and investors fled riskier high-yield bonds in droves in anticipation of widespread defaults. Yield spreads — in this case, the difference between yields on high-yield bonds and yields on “AAA”-rated corporate bonds — soared to a record… Read More

It took a talking duck to make one of the largest insurance companies rise from obscurity to one of the most recognized names in the business. Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) provides health insurance for 40 million people worldwide and has received numerous awards for being the best-managed… Read More

One thing more than any other makes searching for value difficult these days: Loans. The best way to search for discounted companies is to set up a screen that looks at net asset value — assets minus liabilities. (To see… Read More