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ConocoPhillips’ Free Cash Flow Is Disappointing to Us in Third Quarter

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ConocoPhillips (click ticker for report: ) reported its first full quarter as an independent E&P (exploration and production) company Thursday. It spun off its refining arm Phillips 66 (click ticker for report: ) earlier this year. Though we hold ConocoPhillips in the portfolio of our Dividend Growth Newsletter, we’re taking a hard look at whether we want to keep it, as we’ve been disappointed with some of the cash-flow trends recently (particularly after considering that future performance is largely determined by volatile oil and gas prices). We’re considering swapping it for other dividend-growth opportunities available on the market today, which we provide in the following table: “Stocks With High VBI Ratings and Strong Dividend Growth Prospects.” ConocoPhillips reported adjusted earnings … Read more

We Still Like ConocoPhillips as a Solid Dividend-Growth Idea

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On Monday, ConocoPhillips (COP) said on its investor-update call that it expects to grow its cash flow to $22 billion by 2016 – that’s up from about $16 billion this year, an 8.2% compound annual growth rate. The firm also noted that it expects to allocate roughly 20% to 25% of its annual cash flow to dividend payments. We continue to like this high-yielder (3.6% annual payout) in the portfolio of our Dividend Growth newsletter and expect the company to experience high-single-digit dividend growth for some time to come. Conoco’s 3-Year Repositioning Plan “ConocoPhillips continues to execute its asset disposition program, targeting $10 billion in proceeds during 2012. During the quarter, the company closed on the sale of its Vietnam … Read more

Which Sectors Are Leading the Market Higher? And Why Is This Important?

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Missed the ’13 Most Important Steps to Understand the Stock Market’? Click here. Demand academic evidence regarding the efficacy of the Valuentum process? Click here. Tobias J. Moskowitz and Mark Grinblatt documented the “strong and prevalent momentum effect in industry components of stock returns which accounts for much of the individual stock momentum anomaly” in their scholarly article published in the Journal of Finance, ‘Do Industries Explain Momentum’ (download here; stable link here; updated by Fraulo and Nguyen here). Moskowitz and Grinblatt also concluded that “industry momentum investment strategies, which buy stocks from past winning industries and sell stocks from past losing industries, appear highly profitable.” Such findings are consistent with the ‘Case for the Valuentum Style of Investing,’ and … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week September 24

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending September 24. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week Accenture (ACN): now $0.97 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.88. Aerocentury (ACY): now $0.6468 per share special dividend. Altabancorp (ALTA): now $0.46 per share special dividend, was $0.17. Alvopetro Energy (ALVOF): now $0.06 per share quarterly dividend. APA (APA): now $0.0625 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.0250. Ardagh Group (ARD): now $1.25 per share special dividend, was $0.15. Artesian Resources (ARTNA): now $0.2675 per share quarterly … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending February 2

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Below we provide a list of firms that raised or lowered their dividends during the week ending February 2. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week 1st Source (SRCE): now $0.22 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.20. AFLAC (AFL): now $0.52 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.45. Amtek (AME): now $0.14 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.09. Andeavor Logistics (ANDX): now $1.00 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.9852. Apartment Investment (AIV): now $0.38 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.36. AvalonBay Communities (AVB): now $1.47 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.42. … Read more

Worst in Energy Not Over, Stay Away from Leveraged Enterprises, Seeds of Financial Crisis Sown?

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Image Shown: The energy and banking markets continue to be experiencing pain. Since we removed the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) and Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) from the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, the XLE has fallen more than 50% and the XLF has fallen 13%, while the SPY has held up roughly 2%. We continue to believe staying away from energy and financials/banks will be a source of significant alpha. These are challenging times. The oil price swoon has complicated an already-dire situation with COVID-19. We’re seeing cracks in the credit markets, and the European banking system is far from healthy. The US banks may face knock-on impacts from energy loan defaults and hold … Read more