AT&T (T) reports its first quarterly results including DirecTV this week. We think the cost synergies management expects to generate from the deal over the next three years are reasonable – greater negotiating power to buy content at cheaper rates, marketing synergies, more concentrated truck-rolls to service customers, supply chain benefits from set-top boxes, less [...]
PEP reported quarterly results last week, beating expectations and reinforcing the key reasons why we have like the stock. We continue to believe PEP has a clearer and, as of today, brighter future than Coca-Cola (KO). The ongoing trends that drove PEP’s strong quarter suggest that the strategic differences between PEP and KO will only [...]
EMR’s stock price has plunged by more than 25% in 2015. Many of the company’s markets are being impacted by falling oil prices, sluggish industrial spending trends, manufacturing weakness in China, and a strong US dollar. We believe the company’s dividend is very safe and will continue to grow each year, maintaining EMR’s status as [...]
GM has been nothing short of an extremely disappointing business (and investment) for more than a decade. Market share losses, chronically unprofitable operations, ballooning pension and healthcare obligations, safety issues, vehicle recalls, a massive government bailout during the financial crisis, and more have left investors’ skeptical of GM since its relisting in late 2010. More [...]
Rapid growth in digital advertising is sending ripples throughout the marketing landscape. This year has seen an unprecedented level of media reviews by some of the biggest advertisers in the world as they seek to optimize their marketing spend and partner with the most tech-savvy advertising agencies. Not surprisingly, the dominant advertising agencies are scrambling [...]
TROW has raised its dividend each year for more than 25 consecutive years, qualifying it as one of the 52 dividend aristocrats. The stock has sold off with the market over the last six months, shedding more than 10%. While the stock is sensitive to the market's near-term gyrations, TROW's dividend is extremely safe and [...]
Building a large commercial jet is an unbelievable undertaking. While jet orders ebb and flow with the health of the global economy, we believe the long-term demand trajectory is up and to the right, and the jet industry’s competitive dynamics will ensure Boeing (BA) remains a key player in the market for decades to come. [...]
Dick Grasso, the former CEO and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, called Broadridge “the most important firm on Wall Street that you’ve never heard of.” Sometimes, the most boring, under-the-radar businesses prove to be the best long-term investments. We think BR could be one of them...
GE is one of the most unloved blue chip stocks. Almost anywhere you read a GE article on the internet, commentators are quick to rip into CEO Jeff Immelt, the company’s poor capital allocation decisions, the dividend cut during the financial crisis, the bureaucracy, the lack of capital returned to shareholders, the company’s deceptive PR [...]
With thousands of dividend stocks out there, finding good ideas is no small task. No two dividends are created equal, and chasing high dividend yields, high growth rates, or dividend aristocrats alone can be very dangerous. When we look for a dividend investment, we prefer to invest in companies that have survived over long periods [...]
PM was spun off from MO in 2008, with MO serving the U.S. and PM retaining all international operations. With an industry as simplistic to understand as tobacco, there is temptation to assume that the major players are all similar enough to each other. As you will see, such an assumption is often dangerous...
Charles Dickens might as well have been describing the nature of highly cyclical businesses like CAT when he wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, [...]
Investors were excited by MCD’s recent announcement that it would start selling all-day breakfast beginning next month. The stock finished up nearly 3%, outpacing the market (+1.8%) and its peers (+1%). We are less confident that all-day breakfast will reverse declining domestic store sales and keep MCD out of our Top 20 Dividend Stocks list [...]
At the end of June 2015, Warren Buffett owned nearly $120 billion worth of equities and more than 80 businesses. Buffett’s investment success is largely derived from his exceptional ability to combine common sense valuation principles with impeccable business judgment. Once he finds a company he believes will continue earning reasonably high returns on capital and [...]
As long-term dividend investors, beaten down dividend aristocrats always pique our interest. We often screen through the 150+ dividend stocks that have increased their dividends for at least 20 consecutive years, looking for those that have fallen out of favor. XOM has been one of the twenty worst performers on the list due to, you guessed it, [...]