MHFI

Analyst Job Preservation and the Conflicts of Interest That Prevail

by

“I’d rather lose half of my clients than lose half of my clients’ money.” – Jean-Marie Eveillard (First Eagle Global) I think very few investment research firms other than Valuentum can say that they are truly free from conflicts of interest. As shown in the excerpt from FINRA attached at the end of this article, there are at least five sources of analyst conflict of interest: investing banking relationships, analyst compensation, brokerage commissions, buy-side pressures, and ownership interests. No matter how much you may want to believe that sell-side equity research, or research provided by companies such as Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs, is free from conflicts of interest, it simply is not. Valuentum prides itself on being one of … Read more

The Dividend Cushion Meets the Dividend Aristocrats

by

By Brian Nelson, CFA At Valuentum, we know that forward-looking dividend analysis and opinion is all that matters for most income investors. That’s why we’ve provided the following screen of key constituents in the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) and their forward-looking Dividend Cushion ratio. After all, the past is just the past. The future is what counts. The SPDR S&P Dividend ETF is a fund that tracks the the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index, which is “designed to measure the performance of the highest dividend-yielding S&P Composite 1500 Index constituents that have followed a managed-dividends policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 20 consecutive years.” To access either the 16-page stock report or the dividend report of each firm in the following modified ‘Aristocrats’ … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending February 5

by

Below we provide a list of firms that raised/lowered their dividends during the week ending February 5. 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 3M (MMM): now $1.11 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.025. A-Mark (AMRK): now $0.07 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.05. Allegion (ALLE): now $0.12 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.10. Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM): now $0.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.28. Armada Hoffler Properties (AHH): now $0.18 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.17. AvalonBay Communities (AVB): now $1.35 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.25. … Read more