Are S&P 500 Stocks Returning Too Much Cash to Shareholders?

S&P 500 companies are on pace to return a record amount of capital to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases, but what are the investment implications? Let’s take a look. By Kris Rosemann How can any company return too much cash to its shareholders, right? Well, let’s first start this discussion of recent capital allocation trends with some clarifying thoughts. We’re not against corporations returning excess capital to shareholders via dividends and buybacks (SPYB, PKW), provided they are value-generating moves. In many ways, we’re just as excited as the rest of the market about generating sustainable and growing income via strong dividend paying equities, as evidenced by the existence of the Dividend Growth Newsletter and the strong performance of its … Read more

Taxes and the Distressed MLP Investor

Image show above: Performance of the Alerian MLP ETF. “Perhaps the worst thing about MLPs is that investors can spend more time doing and thinking about tax-related items than actually evaluating the businesses of the underlying entities. This could result in poor investment decisions.” – Brian Nelson, CFA By Brian Nelson, CFA What a sensitive topic for many… Our team presented at the Chicago chapter of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) last weekend. It is always an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to present to such wonderful people! They ask so many great questions. (By the way, I’m working on my schedule for 2017, so if you’d like our team to speak on a topic … Read more

The Walking Dead?

At 453.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories remain near levels not seen for this time of year in at least the last 80 years. – Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the Week Ending August 7, 2015 The oil & gas energy complex is nearing a state of panic, if it isn’t already in one. We’ve been talking about the glut of energy resource supply for many months now, and our impeccable positioning in the newsletter portfolios long before the collapse in prices is well known. Kinder Morgan (KMI) had been a relative outperformer in the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio until we removed it at $40 per share a couple of months ago. The same had been true with … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending October 30

Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending October 30. 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 AFLAC (AFL): now $0.41 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.39. Aptar Group, Inc. (ATR): now $0.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.28. Arc Logistics Partners (ARCX): now $0.44 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.425. Central Pacific Financial (CPF): now $0.14 per share quarterly dividend, was 0.12. Colombia Sportswear Company (COLM): now $0.17 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. CorEnergy (CORR): now $0.15 per share quarterly dividend, … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending January 29

Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending January 29. 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 A.O. Smith (AOS): now $0.24 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.19. AGCO (AGCO): now $0.13 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.12. Apartment Investment (AIV): now $0.33 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.30. Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (AIT): now $0.28 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.27. Archrock Inc. (AROC): now $0.1875 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG): now $0.38 per share quarterly dividend, … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending April 29

Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending April 29. 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 abaxis (ABAX): now $0.12 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.11.         Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT): now $0.70 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.30. American National Insurance (ANAT): now $0.82 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.80. AmeriGas Partners (APU): now $0.94 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.92. Ameriprise Financial (AMP): now $0.75 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.67. Apple (AAPL): now $0.57 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.52. … Read more