Two Buy Stories about Kings from the Q2 Earnings Season

The following is a guest post from Mike, a former private banker and passionate investor blogging at The Dividend Guy Blog and founder of Dividend Stocks Rock.

In May, we often read a bunch of articles about stats telling us to sell away and come back in the fall. As a dividend growth investor, I always found those stories strange. After all, why would I sacrifice one or two dividend payments from my favorite stocks just because *they might* lose in value? So while others are selling, I’m keeping a close eye on the market to find buy stories.

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My Favorite Pick Right Now

This is a guest post written by Mike McNeil, author of the Dividend Guy Blog and co-founder of Dividend Stocks Rock. Mike is currently investing $100,000 in a 100% dividend growth portfolio as the market trades at an all-time high.

Regardless where I look these days, I read alarming news about the stock market. Government debts are through the roof, there are tensions among many countries, debt is “too cheap” and we make a bad use of it, interest rates are climbing up and the stock market doesn’t listen to reality, like Icarus reaching for the sun. As Icarus’s story, once our wings will be burned by the sun, the fall will be fatal. This is obvious; everything is set to have the market crashes and burns.

I recently quit my job as a private banker to work full-time on my investing website Dividend Stocks Rock (DSR).  This is how I received $108,000 as a lump sum for my pension. What am I going to do with this new money? What should I do as a dividend investor? Should I keep money aside and wait for a correction?

This could be argued to be an interesting strategy if you think you can time the market. However, for a dividend growth investor, we should all know that time in the market is a lot more important than market timing. We should ignore the noise and keep investing. This is what I’m doing anyway. I decided to invest it all in the stock market now; because when the stock market goes down like this:

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How to Find Dividend Stocks With The Market At All-Time Highs

This guest post has been wrote by Mike McNeil, passionate investor, founder of Dividend Stocks Rock and author of The Dividend Guy Blog.

I started investing when I was 23, back in 2003. Those were the good times and I luckily sold most of my portfolio to buy a house in 2006, 2 years before the market crashed. In a search for a more efficient and less stressful way to invest, I decided to switch my holdings towards a dividend growth investing strategy in 2010. Two years later, 100% of my portfolio was invested in dividend paying stocks. As it is probably the case for most of you, the past 5 years have brought stellar returns.

As many investors start worrying about the stock market trading at a very high PE ratio, I consider reviewing my investing process. Not because I fear a market correction. I don’t fear it, I know it will happen, we just don’t know when it will happen.

But does it matter?

No, it doesn’t.

It doesn’t matter because staying invested in strong dividend paying company is the only way I can achieve my goals. However, investing in dividend stocks doesn’t mean investing in any kind of company making quarterly distribution. Therefore, it is important to tighten your investment process so that aren’t any bad decisions made.

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Honeywell Beats GE On The Following Four Points

This guest post has been wrote by Mike McNeil, passionate investor, founder of Dividend Stocks Rock and author of The Dividend Guy Blog.

The current bull market hides many companies flaws. In fact, since 2009, almost all stocks have gone up one way or another. My 11-year-old boy could probably do as well as most investors on the street. This situation makes it even more difficult for investors to differentiate the good picks from the bad seeds. For example, when you look at the Honeywell (HON) and General Electric (GE) stock price graph for the past 5 years, both seem to be a good investment:

Source: YCharts

While Honeywell (HON) clearly outperformed General Electric during this period, most GE shareholders won’t complain about its performance. I know that General Electric is a very popular stock among investors. The company has been around for over 100 years, and has performed quite well for decades. However, I believe the current bull market is hiding many flaw, and Honeywell is a better option for those who look at adding an industrial stock to their portfolio. Ironically, Honeywell  failed to merge with General Electric back in 2001.

As a dividend growth investor, my focus when analyzing companies is payouts and potential increase. In order to do so, I have studied 3 components leading to sustainable payment increase as per the 7 dividend growth investing principles:

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3 Dividend Stocks Trading At A Discount

This guest post has been wrote by Mike McNeil, passionate investor, founder of Dividend Stocks Rock and author of The Dividend Guy Blog.

As the S&P 500 just finished its 8th consecutive year with positive returns, the crash of 2008 has become merely an old souvenir for many.

Source: Ycharts

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Three Of My Favorite Dividend Stocks For 2017

This guest post has been written by Mike McNeil, passionate investor, founder of Dividend Stocks Rock and author of The Dividend Guy Blog.

In the beginning of this New Year, many investors review their portfolios. We all hope for a good year on the market and, most importantly, steady dividend growth increase among our portfolio. I selected three companies I think will perform well in 2017 and will increase their dividend payouts.

3M (MMM)

Business model:

3M (MMM) produces products like Scotch tape, projector systems, Post-it notes, Tartan track, and Thinsulate. This is a conglomerate that produces products for many industries and for both personal and business use, and their manufacturing, research, and sales offices are all over the world.

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Dividend Investing in a Bullish Market – How You Can Make Good Investment Choices

This is a guest post by Mike, aka The Dividend Guy. He authors The Dividend Guy Blog since 2010 and manages portfolios at Dividend Stocks Rock. He is a passionate investor.

When we look at the market over the past 3 years, we see only good news. Basically, my 9 year old son would have probably been able to make money off the stock market like the rest of us. But now that the easy money is gone, how are you still going to find good investments in such bullish market?

My US dividend stock picks have done better than than the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG). Why? Simply because I keep following simple but effective rules. Here’s more about my investing process.

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Focus on Dividend Growth for Long Term Results

This is a guest post by Mike, aka The Dividend Guy. He authors The Dividend Guy Blog since 2010 and manages portfolios at Dividend Stocks Rock. He is a passionate dividend investor.

If you read Dividend Growth Investor’s blog, you already know how dividend investing is a powerful investing strategy. In fact, for the past 85 years, dividend stocks have contributed 43% of the total S&P500 annualized returns.

Source: JPMorgan

Numbers are even more impressive considering the period between 1990 and 2012:

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Building a Core Dividend Growth Portfolio With These Eight Companies

This is a guest post by Mike, aka The Dividend Guy. He authors The Dividend Guy Blog since 2010 and manages portfolios at Dividend Stocks Rock. He is a passionate dividend investor.

I had the chance to start my investment journey at a relatively young age, I was 22 when I made my first trade on the stock market. Back then, I didn’t have a detailed investment process designed. If there is one thing that I have learned since then is that investing success goes through a solid investment process. If I want to build a strong portfolio, I must have a strong methodology to select the right companies. This is the way to go for any investing strategy, and it is also the case for dividend growth investing. 

I’ve noticed that not all dividend investors think the same. To my surprise, there are some important differences between most of us in the manner in which companies are selected. For example, I’m definitely not a yield seeker. In fact, if there is one thing I don’t consider during my investment selecting process, it is the dividend yield! I focus on the dividend growth as a pillar of my investing strategy. I’ve established 7 investing principles around dividend growth to manage my portfolio. 

I wanted to share these principles with you by giving you eight examples of companies that meet my investing criteria and should create a solid base for any dividend growth portfolio.

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Building a Core Dividend Growth Portfolio With These Eight Companies

I had the chance to start my investment journey at a relatively young age, I was 22 when I made my first trade on the stock market. Back then, I didn’t have a detailed investment process designed. If there is one thing that I have learned since then is that investing success goes through a solid investment process. If I want to build a strong portfolio, I must have a strong methodology to select the right companies. This is the way to go for any investing strategy, and it is also the case for dividend growth investing.

I’ve noticed that not all dividend investors think the same. To my surprise, there are some important differences between most of us in the manner in which companies are selected. For example, I’m definitely not a yield seeker. In fact, if there is one thing I don’t consider during my investment selecting process, it is the dividend yield! I focus on the dividend growth as a pillar of my investing strategy. I’ve established 7 investing principles around dividend growth to manage my portfolio.

I wanted to share these principles with you by giving you 8 examples of companies that meet my investing criteria and should create a solid base for any dividend growth portfolio.

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Dividend Investing in a Bullish Market – How You Can Make Good Investment Choices

This is a guest post by Mike, aka The Dividend Guy. He authors The Dividend Guy Blog since 2010 and manages portfolios at Dividend Stocks Rock. He is a passionate investor.

When we look at the market over the past 3 years, we see only good news. Basically, my 9 year old son would have probably been able to make money off the stock market like the rest of us. But now that the easy money is gone, how are you still going to find good investments in such bullish market?

Last year, my US dividend stock picks went up by 37%, that’s 11% more than VIG, the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF. Why? Simply because I keep following simple but effective rules. Here’s more about my investing process.

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Some Recent Dividend News - in Video

A video source I like to head to is from the folks over at MarketNewsVideo.com, and specifically their 'Dividend Channel'. Each week they post a pretty good review of the most influencial dividend news from the prior week. In last week's, they cover the recent dividend increase for Annaly Capital Management.




This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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How Healthy is Your Dividend

Up in Canada, one of the financial journalists I like to follow is John Heinzl. The reason is quite simple: he is a proponent of the dividend investing strategy and I have learned a lot about the strategy from him. In this video he talks about one of the important ratios that can indicate how healthy a dividend is coming from a particular company - the dividend payout ratio.


To view this video you will need to click through this link or the image capture below as the Globeinvestor.com does not allow people to embed their videos (which they really should do).

This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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BP and a Dividend at Risk

BP, the oil and gas company, is in a world of hurt these days. Never mind the environmental destruction going on (which is huge and a total shame), but the company financially will be hurt for some time to come. At risk for dividend investors is of course, the dividend. In this video, the topic of BP's dividend comes up. As with all dividend companies, there are many things beyond our control that can impact a company's ability to pay its dividend. Diversification is paramount.




This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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What to Do When the Market Is a Hold

Dividend investors constantly need to figure our where to spend their dividends. Up until last week a lot of people have been arguing that the market is fairly valued. Regardless of your view, it is important for investors to constantly evaluate the markets and decide where the best opportunities for our money are. This video from Morningstar address this very question.




This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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How Financial Reform Impacts Bank Investors

Bank stocks have traditionally been known as stocks loved by dividend investors. They often pay higher than average dividends, and many of them have long histories of increasing those dividends. That is until the last couple of years when the financial world has been turned upside down due to bad lending habits by the banks. Below is an interesting video by Morningstar dividend editor Josh Peters on recent changes to bank's business plans and what this means for investors.





This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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Are People Saving Too Much?

There are some media articles coming out every now and then stating that there are a group of economists out there who are suggesting that some people may be saving too much for retirement. I find this very interesting.

I find this interesting because I strongly believe that many banks, mutual fund companies, and other investment companies do their best to convince the public that if you don't sock as much money as you can into their investment products then you are going to end being a poor desolate person. Just think of those Freedom 55 ads showing that gray-haired individual sitting by his million dollar lake front property while his grandchildren swim in the water, his wife gives him a big kiss on the cheek, and his daughter smiles at him like he is the best person in the world. All because, we are lead to believe, he has saved for his retirement and is able to provide this for his family. Man, who wouldn't want that!!

That is exactly what the investment companies want you to think! You too can have that if you just give them your money so they can indiscriminately take exorbitant fees to overpay managers who do little more than meet the market (or worse - under perform the market). As a result, people are being guilt-ed into savings as much as possible - sometime too much - into their investment accounts and sacrificing things such as vacations or even going into debt just for the sake of saving.

However, even with all this said I think it is better to be saving more than less. I would rather end up with more money than I know what to do with as opposed to the alternative. I think the important thing is to realistically assess what you will need in your retirement, add some level of cushion to it that makes you comfortable and strive to get there through a regular investment and savings program.

This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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Should Berkshire Pay a Dividend?

Berkshire Hathaway is one of the most successful companies of our time, and one thing they have never done is pay a dividend.  Much of the company's success comes from owning large pieces of companies that pay high and growing dividends.  As a dividend investor, that success is something I try to obtain through owning strong dividend growth stocks.


The questions of whether Berkshire should pay a dividend or not comes up again and again.  In this video, with Morningstar newsletter editor Josh Peters, the questions is asked again.  I wasn't able to embed the video in this post, so you will need to post through to the site to view it.

Should Berkshire Pay a Dividend?

This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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Daily Dividend Report

If you like to keep track of dividend related happenings in the stock market, there are a lot of resources available to you.  One I like to check out often is the Daily Dividend Report that is put out by Forbes.com.  In this particular episode from April 16th, the website covers dividend paying companies Caterpillar and Carnival Cruise Lines to name a few.  Not a bad way to stay on top of things.

This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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Dividend ETFs for Investors Looking for Yield

As you may know, I like to scour YouTube and other video sites for new videos posted that cover the world of dividend investing. More often than not, there is not much new there and if there is, it is of low quality. This one talks to Morningstar and offers up the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Fund (VIG) as a potential dividend pick for the right individual.

This article was written by The Dividend Guy. To learn more about dividend investing, please follow my RSS feed or Twitter account.

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