Dividend Income Analysis: Leggett & Platt (LEG)

I always enjoy coming across lesser-known companies who have stellar dividend track records. Although I had heard of Leggett & Platt (LEG) and briefly skimmed over the stock in the past, I did not appreciate its impressive dividend history until doing this analysis. A mid-cap ($3.5 billion) company that has been paying a dividend for 73 years and increasing that dividend for 40 years deserves more attention. Well LEG, you've caught my attention. READ MORE


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TAGS: [LEG]

Stock Sale: Intel (INTC)

Those of you who have followed me know I'm a big fan of Intel (INTC).  I've made it known on several occasions that it is my biggest dividend growth holding.  I've been allocating Intel off and on since 2008 and was lucky enough to load up during the crash in March 2009.  The main reason it's my biggest holding though is because, despite reporting solid earnings throughout the years and steadily increasing its dividend by double digits each year, the stock price continues to be cheap.  I find it hard to pass up a good deal, and Intel has been a good deal for quite some time.

The stock had a nice run from the beginning of the year and into May touching a 52 week high of $29.  Since then it has bounced around the $26 and $27 level.  But the past couple weeks the stock has dropped to below $25 and has piqued my interest once again. So why did the stock drop nearly 5% in the past couple weeks?

Delayed Satisfaction Can Be Profitable

I have a confession.  This confession causes me to be made fun of by friends, something that I think causes my wife some embarrassment, and something that I'm oddly proud of.  I am a flip-phone owner.  And this isn't some new flip-phone (assuming they still make them), no, this is the same phone I have owned since 2006.  I love this phone.  It's small so it fits nicely in my pocket, the battery will still outlast most smartphones, and I don't have to have a data plan in order to use it.  And I'll be honest, that last point is the main reason I haven't upgraded.  I'm a techie, I like the latest and greatest toys and would love to have a smartphone but my sensible and maybe somewhat frugal mind always wins out.

Another Technology Dividend Stalwart In The Making?

Its typical for dividend paying stocks to start out as high-growth stocks that reinvest their earnings back into the company to fund future growth.  Over time, the growth slows and a company is left with a steady business that brings in a lot of cash. So instead of adding to the piles of cash they already have, they decide to start paying a dividend.  This is what is happening in the Technology Sector.  Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT) have been paying a dividend for about a decade.  Earlier this year Apple (AAPL) decided to join the party with its first dividend payment.  And just last year Cisco (CSCO) began giving back to its shareholders with a regular dividend.

Dividend Growth Analysis: McDonald's (MCD)

I've wanted to own stock in McDonald's (MCD) for quite some time.  When I first began following a dividend growth investment plan it was one of the last stocks I thought about buying, but I decided against it because I thought it was too expensive at the time.  Ever since then I've watched the stock and dividend go up. Recently thou, there has been a pullback in the stock price, and there's nothing a dividend growth investor likes more than a stock sale on a great dividend paying company.  Before I pull the trigger though, I need to see how MCD stacks up in my dividend growth analysis.  I was surprised to find that there were a couple of places where it misses the mark (just barely) but overall it's a hard buy to pass up at current prices  READ MORE

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Stocks Providing Raises For Their Shareholders

Typically I've been posting (bragging) when a stock I own increases its dividend, but this doesn't give you an idea of how many companies out there that are also increasing their dividends.  So I'm going to attempt to do something about that.  I intend to make regular posts with a list of companies that recently increased their dividend. This list won't be a recommendation to buy, but based on information you see on a stock it may entice you to look deeper into a company.  I know looking at lists like these before has led me to buy stock in a particular company.

So hopefully here is the first of many posts like this.  I may tweak how or what data is displayed, but I will always list how much a company increased their dividend and what their current yield is.  And, as always, I will disclose at the bottom of these posts if I have a position in any of the stocks I list.

The Secret to Successful Dividend Investing

Sorry, it's been a busy few weeks and my posting frequency has suffered.  I've got a few stocks lined up for analysis as I am overdue for another dividend growth analysis.  Hopefully things slow down soon, until then here's a post from the Motely Fool / MSNBC that makes a good point... don't chase yields, chase growth.

There are many lessons in investing that seem counterintuitive at first, only to become glaringly obvious in hindsight. While successful investors grasp this and go on to build fortunes, others don't, and thus miss out on the opportunity to live beyond their previously imagined means.  One such lesson concerns dividend stocks.

By now, it's common knowledge that dividend stocks generally beat their nondividend-paying brethren over the long term. My colleague Morgan Housel offered proof of this by showing that a $1,000 investment in the 10 S&P 500 companies with the highest dividend yields in 1957 would have been worth $1.3 million by 2006. Over the same time period, meanwhile, the same investment in the index overall would have amounted to only $176,000.  READ MORE

Boring Terms We Need To Know: Master Limited Partnership (MLP)

Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), it just sounds like a boring term doesn't it.  MLPs, like REITs, are typically strong dividend payers because they pay out most of their generated cash flow to investors, or "unit holders", in lieu of paying taxes.  I've had several readers email me asking me to do a dividend analysis on specific MLP stocks. Since MLP's operate differently than normal stocks though, running them through my current dividend analysis (growth or income) wouldn't be valid.  So I guess I need to add a MLP Dividend Analysis Template to my "to-do list".  Before I do that though, it would be a good idea to educate those of you aren't familiar with this type of stock and what we should consider before investing in them.

Roth IRA Move: Sold Some (O) to buy (HAS)

Since doing my analysis on Hasbro I've been digging deeper into the company's financials and continue to like what I see.  On Tuesday I decided to make a purchase in my Roth IRA, the problem was I didn't have cash in that account as I'm fully allocated. Something I have been contemplating though was selling some of my Realty Income (O) stock as it has been on a tear the past few years.

You may recall that Realty is the company I used to show the power of compounding.  It has been a strong performing REIT since it became a public company, and has treated me well for the past several years I have owned it.  In fact, I was lucky enough to purchase the majority of my shares in 2009 when the market was at record lows, so I'm up over 100% on my position and have been collecting monthly dividend payments along the way.

So if its been treating me so well why sell?  Good question, here's why.

Highlighting Seven Unique Dividend ETFs

Dividend ETFs can be an easy way to diversify your dividend holdings with one purchase.  I have considered dividend ETFs in the past, especially ones focused on international companies, but have yet to invest.  The following is a repost from www.eftdailynews.com and discusses several potential dividend focused ETFs. 

Dividend-paying stocks continue to be a popular investment theme in the low rate, high volatility environment. With expectations for record low yields on traditional sources of income expected to continue for the foreseeable future, more and more investors (both large and small) are seeking out dividend payers as a critical component of their portfolios.

While some prefer to focus on evaluating the best dividend stocks, there has also been a surge in interest for dividend-focused ETFs. There are now more than 50 ETFs that specifically target dividend-paying stocks, including variations that focus on yield, consistency, and other characteristics.  READ MORE