A high dividend yield can be a sign of a strong, stable company and investment. However a large dividend yield may also be a signal of trouble and a hint that the company’s dividend may be unsustainable and cut in the near future.
Thankfully for investors, there are several quick checks you can do based on a company’s financial statements to see how sustainable that dividend really is. [continue reading…]
{ 2 comments }
Another busy week of earnings. Here are a few quotes that stood out to me during this week’s conference calls – major topic; rising prices and costs just about everywhere: [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
The first step in finding potential investment opportunities is to be able to go through and evaluate a company’s financial reports. In this article we evaluate the Cash Flow Statement, one of the most useful of the three financial statements.
{ 1 comment }
Why invest in commodities? And why now?
If you are questioning why commodities would make a good investment, you are not alone. Here’s what Warren Buffett had to say about one of the most famous commodities, gold: [continue reading…]
{ 2 comments }
The week starts off with an ominous article in the Wall Street Journal. Margin debt, or loans investors have taken out with their investments as collateral has hit an all time high. Higher than just before the 2000 bursting of the tech bubble, higher than just before the 2007 financial crisis.
{ 0 comments }
I really enjoyed the latest Talks at Google, featuring Andrew Lo. His presentation gives some great examples, and warnings, to investors:
[continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
This week’s Chart of the Week comes from the most recent ‘Guide to the Markets’ put out by the wealth management folks at JP Morgan:
How much longer can the trend last? Here’s some thoughts: [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
Investors have to interpret a lot of numbers, and make sense of a lot of forecasts in order to come to well educated investment decisions. But many of us went through the math class that taught us how to do this asking the teacher, “When are we ever going to use this?” and spacing out.
{ 0 comments }
Pioneer Natural Resources (Ticker: PXD) shocked oil investors when it released their second quarter earnings last week. Shares of the shale driller went from $163 a share to under $130,and other s hale oil names fell as much as 10%.
The company reported $233 million in net income, a 4% rise in production and lower operating costs. So why did Wall Street sell off the sector? They saw this graph:
{ 0 comments }
What are CEOs saying to their shareholders as the first half of 2017 is in the books? Here are some excerpts from industry leaders like 3M, Facebook, Boeing and more.
Some common themes this week: [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
This week marks the anniversary of, at the time, the largest bankruptcy in American history and the conclusion of the largest case of accounting fraud in history. *
WorldCom declared bankruptcy July 21st, 2002 with $107 billion in assets.
How did this fraud develop? How was the WorldCom scandal discovered? How did WorldCom investors fare? [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
Over time, the largest share of the expenses you pay while investing will be a result of paying ETF or mutual fund expense ratio fees.
How do you find out how much your funds are charging you? How much will those fees affect your savings over the course of your investing life? We take a look… [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
Emerging market stocks have had a rough decade. 3 year annual returns are flat and even long term 10 year annual returns are barely over 1.5%. But there is new life appearing in the emerging markets. This year the FTSE Emerging Market Index is up 18%, breaking a long term downtrend:
Are emerging markets turning the corner?
What’s the best way to invest in emerging markets? We take a look at a few options:
{ 0 comments }
We are in the middle of earnings season. What are corporate executives seeing in the world economy? Take a look:
{ 0 comments }
Today marks a notorious day in stock market history. On this day 1932 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 41.22.
What’s so special about that? [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
Another quarter has come and gone on Wall Street. That means it is time to run our Ben Graham Value Screens again and see what companies have made the cut this quarter! [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
The basic operation of a business is centered around 2 steps:
And I would argue that step #2 is the most important. Of course quality of your product is important, but if your product isn’t selling – the business is not making money. Period.
Today we are going to look at a few ways to analyze the inventory on a company’s balance sheet to help us measure how well the company is doing selling its product.
Inventory is usually the largest current asset on a company’s balance sheet, and is therefore the company’s primary use of cash. We have all seen the new companies on Shark Tank who desperately need money for inventory (Or who have used up all their capital buying inventory). So learning a few basics on what a company’s inventory is telling you is very important.
{ 1 comment }
It’s a new year, and a new quarter! That means it is time to run our Ben Graham Value Screens again and see what companies have made the cut. [continue reading…]
{ 5 comments }
Welcome 2017! A new year, which means among many other things, a new year to invest in your IRA, ROTH IRA and/or 401(k). Here are the limits for contributions to IRAs, ROTH IRAs and 401(k)s, and how much you need to be saving each month or each bi-weekly paycheck to reach those limits:
(Click to enlarge)
Confused? (It’s the IRS tax laws – of course you are!) Here it is in text and some of the fine print: [continue reading…]
{ 0 comments }
