Hercules Technology Growth Capital to Announce Second Quarter Financial Results and Quarterly Dividend

Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (Nasdaq: HTGC), the leading specialty finance company devoted to addressing the capital needs of venture capital and private equity-backed technology-related companies, including clean technology, life sciences and lower middle market companies at all stages of development, announced today it has scheduled its second quarter financial results conference call for Thursday, August 4th, 2011, at 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET). Hercules will release the company's financial results after market close that same day.... more

Can Frontier Communications Maintain Its Healthy Dividend?

As investors, we want to earn the highest possible return possible. However, the uncertainty of today's environment really makes it difficult to forecast future returns. One way to make sure we earn our keep is to focus on dividends. That way, we get paid cash in quarterly installments and are not at the mercy of Mr. Market's mood swings.
Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR) pays a juicy 9.6% dividend yield, which ensures multiple repeat appearances on dividend investors' radars. This raises the question: Is the dividend sustainable? Let's take a look at the company to make a more informed decision.

Making a splash... more

The Extraordinary Power of Dividends: Caterpillar Edition

"Dividends?" he asked. "I'm trying to make my clients wealthy. You don't do that waiting for tiny checks in the mailbox every quarter." Even then, I had enough horse sense to know he was wrong. Paying attention to dividends is exactly how you become wealthy over time.
Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel made a wonderful discovery in his book The Future for Investors. The greatest long-term returns typically don't come from the most innovative companies, or even companies with the highest earnings growth. They come from companies that happen to crank out dividends year after year. Simply put, since the 1950s, "the portfolios with higher dividend yields offered investors higher returns."... more

How To Earn 7% Yields... From New York Taxi Cabs

One of the nastier consequences of the financial crisis of 2008 was an almost instant contraction of credit. While consumer credit contracted as expected, commercial lending evaporated as well. American businesses, primarily small and mid-market businesses, were cut off from access to capital, preventing them from expanding and in some cases even staying afloat.
But at the same time, something magical also happened. While banks refused to lend the cash the Federal Reserve had pumped into the system to keep them afloat, business development companies (BDCs) and other private equity entities stepped up to fill that space. So, in addition to providing liquidity to cash-starved businesses, they also made lots of money and created billions of dollars in value.... more

4 Dividend Stocks Showing You the Money

Readers of the Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at some of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week. Let's start with Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq: HBAN) . The Ohio-based banker is finally improving to the point of shedding its token penny quarterly dividend. It will be quadrupling its rate to $0.04 a share every three months. This may not seem like much, but it amounts to a reasonable 2.6% yield given its low share price.... more

Master Limited Partnerships: The Perfect Dividend Stocks

Master limited partnerships typically are engaged in the transportation of oil and gas across a vast network of pipelines. While prices of energy products fluctuate greatly, the volume transported does not change by much. In addition, once a pipeline is built, there is little in maintenance expenses for this long term asset and there is little if any competition in the particular geographic area for transporting energy products like oil or gas. As a result, master limited partnerships are able to pass most of their distributable cash flows to investors in the form of distributions. In effect, master limited partnerships are the perfect dividend growth stocks, as they pay above average yields and they also consistently grow distributions at least once per year. The list of consistent... more

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) Dividend Stock Analysis

Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis: Company Description: Lockheed Martin Corp. is the world's largest military weapons manufacturer and is also a significant supplier to NASA and other non-defense government agencies. LMT receives about 93% of its revenues from global defense sales. Fair Value: In calculating fair value, I consider the NPV MMA Differential Fair Value along with these four calculations of fair value, see page 2 of the linked PDF for a detailed description: 1. Avg. High Yield Price 2. 20-Year DCF Price 3. Avg. P/E Price 4. Graham Number LMT is trading at a discount to 1.) and 3.) above. Since LMT's tangible book value is not meaningful, a Graham number can... more

National Oilwell Varco's Dividend Is Safe

Here, we'll highlight a given company and its closest competitors to see just how safe their dividends are, with a little help from three crucial tools: The interest coverage ratio, or earnings before interest and taxes, divided by interest expense. The interest coverage ratio measures a company's ability to pay the interest on its debt. An interest coverage ratio less than 1.5 is questionable; a number less than 1 means that the company is not bringing in enough money to cover its interest expenses. The EPS payout ratio, or dividends per share divided by earnings per share. The EPS payout ratio measures the percentage of earnings that go toward paying the dividend. A ratio greater than 80% is worrisome. The FCF payout ratio, or dividends per share divided by free cash flow per... more

8 REITs at High Risk of Cutting Dividends and 3 Safer Options

We took a look at a few high-yielders with lofty payout ratios. These types of companies tend to be “real-estate investment trusts” or REITs that distribute cash flows and earnings with different standards so dividends stay safe. However, we think these names could see some turbulence ahead, and may have to reduce the dividend payout. Instead, we recommend investors take a look at dividend stocks that are undervalued like Intel (INTC), International Business Machines (IBM) and Home Depot (HD). Consider the below as a list of red flags that should be alerting investors: Macerich Company (MAC) is a REIT involved with retail real-estate in California, such as shopping malls and plazas. This equity pays out an amazing $2.00 dividend on just $0.23 reported, for a wholly unhealthy 8.7... more

5 High-Yield Stocks With Institutional Ownership Above 90%

Instutional ownership refers to the ownership stake in a company that is held by large financial organizations, pension funds or endowments. Investing on these firms has some pros. Institutions have access to tools that ordinary investors are not aware of. They perform in-depth analysis and apply mathematical techniques before investing in a company. Researching and building a position in a company requires a large amount of money and time. Therefore stocks with high institutional ownerships tend to have lower turnovers. Here is a list of 5 stocks with heavy institutional ownership and low P/E ratios (data derived from Finviz/Morningstar is current as of July 22): Mattel Inc. ( MAT ): Co- founder of Mattel , Elliot Handler, died on July 22. He... more