Hospitality Properties Trust Announces 2011 Dividend Allocation

Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE: HPT) today announced that the characterization of dividends for 2011 income tax reporting purposes is as follows:... more

Government Properties Income Trust Announces 2011 Dividend Allocation

Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE: GOV) today announced that the characterization of dividends for 2011 income tax reporting purposes is as follows:... more

CommonWealth REIT Announces 2011 Dividend Allocation

CommonWealth REIT (NYSE: CWH) today announced that the characteristics of dividends for 2011 income tax reporting purposes are as follows:... more

Senior Housing Properties Trust Announces 2011 Dividend Allocation

Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH) today announced that the characterization of dividends for 2011 income tax reporting purposes is as follows:... more

Are Dividends Irrelevant, Or Even Harmful? (Part II)

Some say that paying a dividend is neutral to negative, since it removes potential opportunity from a company in the event that a suitable growth opportunity appears that requires cash in addition to taxation issues (See Why Dividend Paying Stocks Are a Mistake as one example). Thus, future earnings growth could be limited. The counter argument follows this line of reasoning as discussed in Part One: Dividend stocks are more closely linked to the price to earnings ratio as dividend yield is essentially a function of the P/E ratio with the inclusion of payout ratio. In fact, the lower the P/E ratio, the better this is for the dividend yield – provided the company does not have sliding fundamentals. Dividends lowers the P/E ratio in the opposite way buybacks do (buybacks try to... more

Ensco: Good Dividend, Great Growth, Young Deep Sea Drilling Fleet

Most well services drillers drill for both natural gas and oil. Recently US natural gas prices have fallen through the floor. This makes it harder to invest in oil and gas drilling service companies. One wonders how much of a cut back in drilling the US natural gas price fall will cause. Ensco (ESV) is one of these well services drillers, but it is a deep sea driller. This kind of drilling is just starting to recover from the cut backs due to the Macondo well disaster. The prices of natural gas have been low relative to oil for some time. This means that most of the relatively expensive offshore drilling is for oil. Plus, only US natural gas prices have fallen through the floor. For example, Russian natural gas prices have been rising since June 2011 in direct opposition to the downtrend... more

8 Low Debt Dividend Stocks With High Cash Relative To Expenses

In the search for attractive dividend stocks, keep in mind the need for company liquidity. Cash-strapped firms are least able to fund a consistent dividend, so look at a company's cash holdings to help determine whether they pay a sustainable dividend. We ran a screen on dividend stocks with low company debt (with total debt/equity below 0.3) for those with high cash relative to their average quarterly operating expenses over the current quarter. ‪ Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the top six stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.‬ We also created a price-weighted index of the stocks mentioned below, and monitored the performance of the list relative to the S&P... more

'Buy Zones' For 7 High Yield MLPs To Consider On A Pullback

MLP Overview MLPs generally offer stable yields that are typically higher than those of common stocks. In addition, MLP returns have traditionally had low correlations with stocks and bonds, making them good portfolio diversification assets (especially in times of economic uncertainty). As highlighted in Standard & Poor's Guide to MLPs, MLPs offer investors three distinct positive characteristics: Tax Treatment - Since MLPs are structured as partnerships they do not pay corporate income taxes. Taxes are only paid when distributions are received, thus avoiding the double taxation faced by investors in corporations. Consistent Distributions - MLPs face stringent provisions including the requirement to pay minimum quarterly distributions to limited partners, by contract. Thus, the... more

What's Ahead for Procter & Gamble in 2012?

The new year is here and that means that it's the perfect time to sit down with some of the stocks you own -- or, perhaps, are thinking about buying -- to figure out what 2012 may bring.
Today I'm going to take a look at Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) , the global consumer-goods giant that managed to edge ahead of the rest of the market in 2011. Could 2012 bring even more gains for investors? Let's dig in.
The tale of the tape
Market Cap $181 billion Dividend Yield 3.2% Trailing Price-to-Earnings 16.7 Forward Price-to-Earnings 15.3 Expected Five-Year Growth 9% Source: S&P Capital IQ.
The keys for 2012... more

Olin: Dividend Dynamo, or Blowup?

Dividend investing is a tried-and-true strategy for generating strong, steady returns in economies both good and bad. But as corporate America's slew of dividend cuts and suspensions over the past few years has demonstrated, it's not enough simply to buy a high yield. You also need to make sure those payouts are sustainable.
Let's examine how Olin (NYSE: OLN) stacks up. In this series, we consider four critical factors investors should examine in every dividend stock. We'll then tie it all together to look at whether Olin is a dividend dynamo or a disaster in the making.
1. Yield... more