Investing 102

[Vortech404]

I'm still here too reading this thread everyday. I don't have tons of money to purchase right now but when I don't it's cool seeing the company's help me out by way of dividends!!

This thread has slowed my build tremendously. lol

John

[YAMATHUMP]

I am a new member here, never thought I would read about investing on lateral-G. LOL With that being said, pretty much everything Mr Weld has written is stuff we have all read before. It feels different coming from someone not on Wall Street. (and that is a Good thing) It's good to read about some of the thoughts and ideas others have to make you think about the "big" picture of investing and not making foolish mistakes. I am sure that I would be speaking for everyone when I say "Well done Sir"

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by PaulHarrell

RECOVERY ROOM, Thanks for your suggestion.

WELCOME PAUL.... It's 477 pages of repetition because the real theme doesn't change. Feel free to chime in and ask questions if you want to. Nobody has to share personal info -- I do, but only for the purpose of goading and real time actual details.

Originally Posted by YAMATHUMP

I am a new member here, never thought I would read about investing on lateral-G. LOL With that being said, pretty much everything Mr Weld has written is stuff we have all read before. It feels different coming from someone not on Wall Street. (and that is a Good thing) It's good to read about some of the thoughts and ideas others have to make you think about the "big" picture of investing and not making foolish mistakes. I am sure that I would be speaking for everyone when I say "Well done Sir"

There is nothing new here.... saving money - investing it - reinvesting dividends etc is not new. What is "new" is that most people know what they SHOULD be doing but never do. My goal in all of this is to get people to taste what it's like - and see or experience what a huge difference it will make in their lives. Then they're hooked. That's when the magic happens.

[toy71camaro]

Keep it up Greg.

I'm still following as well. I don't post much as I dont have a whole lot to add to what's already been said. lol.

To the newcomers, welcome!

I still track my investments daily, with my tracking spreadsheet that keeps me in the loop.

My "Home Run" has been LMT, which I had actually bought a little before joining in this thread, but I was starting to learn on my own/elsewhere about dividend investing. Cool thing is now its payin me 7% dividend. Just wished I had a couple grand to throw at it in the beginning, rather than a couple hundred. LOL.

[chichirone]

Still reading as well Greg. Your goading is what got me hooked in the first place and now the repetitive goading is pushing me to do more. Keep it up man. It's much appreciated and educational. Just to read how you look at the stock beyond the charts is beneficial not only in stocks/market but in everyday business dealings.

On another note, I have been wondering what tools are beneficial on the Schwab site? They have all kinds of links on the right hand side of the research page which I just get lost in...corner stock of the day, highlights, pick lists, Morningstar, etc. Most of this seems to be "noise" to me. I have delved into some of it but not sure if you have any suggestions on how to use these links or continue to focus more on the charts, screeners, and comparison tabs.

I have become "comfortable" navigating these tabs but was curious if there was any additional tools or ways to use them you would recommend to us as we look at the research page.

[captainofiron]

Hows everyone doing on oil?

I must say I was tempted to sell back when I was under ~25%

But I didnt and instead threw a grand at it from my former companies 401k

so far looks like it helped, with the lower cost basis as of this morning I am "only" -1.6%

Just wanted to say thanks to Greg and the other financial wizards posting on here, if not for you guys, I would have sold it when the pressure was on

[chichirone]

I am looking to buy more of it. KMI and COP. Not much more but maybe another $1000 of each. It's what I am comfortable with when having some discomfort with the market.

I read this today as well and was curious what people think about these types of dividend yield suggestions posted by Marketwatch.

By Philip van Doorn, MarketWatch
Looking at free cash flow is very important when picking a dividend stock
If you are an investor relying on stock dividends for income, you want to be sure that the company will be able to continue making the payments, and maybe even raise the dividend at some point.
Back in December, we published a list of dividend stocks for solid income while U.S. interest rates remain low. Since then, long-term interest rates have stayed low, with 10-year U.S. Treasury notes yielding 2.14% on Tuesday, which was actually a pretty significant increase from 2.05% on Friday, as investors looked ahead to next week's policy speech by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.
The previous list included S&P 500 (SPX) companies with dividend yields of more than 3.5%, that had sufficient free cash flow over the previous 12 months to make it appear that the companies were well positioned to raise their dividends.
Free cash flow is a company's remaining cash flow after capital expenditures. We can calculate a "cash flow yield" by dividing cash flow per share, for a particular 12-month period, by the share price. If the resulting figure is higher than the dividend, the company has "headroom" to increase the dividend.
This approach was suggested by Bill McMahon, the chief investment officer of Thomas Partners, back in May.
So what has changed since then we published our previous list in December? For one thing, 334 S&P 500 companies have had their 2015 earnings estimates cut since the beginning of the year. Two big reasons for this are the decline in oil prices and the rising value of the dollar (EURUSD) against the euro, which means higher prices for exports and declining sales for many companies.
So we thought it would be useful not only to consider the past 12 months' free cash flow, but to look ahead using the consensus free-cash-flow estimates for 2015, among analysts polled by FactSet. This data isn't available for every S&P 500 stock. But a list confined to companies for which the data is available indicates continued headroom to raise dividends is certainly a more conservative one.
Here are the highest-yielding S&P 500 stocks, with headroom to raise dividends based on the past 12 months and consensus 2015 free-cash-flow estimates:

Company Ticker Free cash flow yield - past 12 months Free cash flow yield - 2015 estimate Dividend yield Headroom - past 12 months Headroom - 2015 estimate
Windstream Holdings PLC 13.91% 12.36% 11.19% 2.72% 1.17%
Mattel Inc. 9.48% 5.95% 5.50% 3.98% 0.45%
CenturyLink Inc. 9.57% 11.50% 5.47% 4.09% 6.02%
AT&T Inc. 5.48% 7.38% 5.42% 0.06% 1.96%
Frontier Communications Corp. Class B 8.57% 10.56% 4.77% 3.79% 5.79%
Verizon Communications Inc. 6.56% 8.19% 4.46% 2.10% 3.73%
Plum Creek Timber Co. 4.77% 4.92% 4.02% 0.75% 0.90%
GameStop Corp. Class A 5.63% 11.41% 3.53% 2.09% 7.87%
Seagate Technology Inc. 11.66% 10.56% 3.49% 8.17% 7.07%
Garmin Ltd. 4.26% 5.52% 3.43% 0.83% 2.08%
Source: FactSet

[Vegas69]

I own two oil stocks. Both went from black to red when oil dropped. One has now increased by $14 a share from it's recent low while the other has only come back around $3. I have bought more oil stocks in the last few months.

[captainofiron]

Originally Posted by chichirone

I am looking to buy more of it. KMI and COP. Not much more but maybe another $1000 of each. It's what I am comfortable with when having some discomfort with the market.

I read this today as well and was curious what people think about these types of dividend yield suggestions posted by Marketwatch.

By Philip van Doorn, MarketWatch
Looking at free cash flow is very important when picking a dividend stock
If you are an investor relying on stock dividends for income, you want to be sure that the company will be able to continue making the payments, and maybe even raise the dividend at some point.
Back in December, we published a list of dividend stocks for solid income while U.S. interest rates remain low. Since then, long-term interest rates have stayed low, with 10-year U.S. Treasury notes yielding 2.14% on Tuesday, which was actually a pretty significant increase from 2.05% on Friday, as investors looked ahead to next week's policy speech by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.
The previous list included S&P 500 (SPX) companies with dividend yields of more than 3.5%, that had sufficient free cash flow over the previous 12 months to make it appear that the companies were well positioned to raise their dividends.
Free cash flow is a company's remaining cash flow after capital expenditures. We can calculate a "cash flow yield" by dividing cash flow per share, for a particular 12-month period, by the share price. If the resulting figure is higher than the dividend, the company has "headroom" to increase the dividend.
This approach was suggested by Bill McMahon, the chief investment officer of Thomas Partners, back in May.
So what has changed since then we published our previous list in December? For one thing, 334 S&P 500 companies have had their 2015 earnings estimates cut since the beginning of the year. Two big reasons for this are the decline in oil prices and the rising value of the dollar (EURUSD) against the euro, which means higher prices for exports and declining sales for many companies.
So we thought it would be useful not only to consider the past 12 months' free cash flow, but to look ahead using the consensus free-cash-flow estimates for 2015, among analysts polled by FactSet. This data isn't available for every S&P 500 stock. But a list confined to companies for which the data is available indicates continued headroom to raise dividends is certainly a more conservative one.
Here are the highest-yielding S&P 500 stocks, with headroom to raise dividends based on the past 12 months and consensus 2015 free-cash-flow estimates:

Company Ticker Free cash flow yield - past 12 months Free cash flow yield - 2015 estimate Dividend yield Headroom - past 12 months Headroom - 2015 estimate
Windstream Holdings PLC 13.91% 12.36% 11.19% 2.72% 1.17%
Mattel Inc. 9.48% 5.95% 5.50% 3.98% 0.45%
CenturyLink Inc. 9.57% 11.50% 5.47% 4.09% 6.02%
AT&T Inc. 5.48% 7.38% 5.42% 0.06% 1.96%
Frontier Communications Corp. Class B 8.57% 10.56% 4.77% 3.79% 5.79%
Verizon Communications Inc. 6.56% 8.19% 4.46% 2.10% 3.73%
Plum Creek Timber Co. 4.77% 4.92% 4.02% 0.75% 0.90%
GameStop Corp. Class A 5.63% 11.41% 3.53% 2.09% 7.87%
Seagate Technology Inc. 11.66% 10.56% 3.49% 8.17% 7.07%
Garmin Ltd. 4.26% 5.52% 3.43% 0.83% 2.08%
Source: FactSet

I have COP as well, only because my dad works for Halliburton on their (Conoco's) shale plays, so I have decent visibility on how things are doing.

yea its alot lower than where I initially bought it, but they arent cutting back nearly as bad as some of the other oil companies in the area.

[GregWeld]

Wow --- several good questions in here!! I'll respond later today or tomorrow. Since I've been gone for a week I've got several things on my plate that need to be finished before I head off to USCA T-hill for another week...