Bemis Company (BMS) Dividend Stock Analysis

Bemis Company, Inc. (BMS) manufactures and sells flexible packaging products and pressure sensitive materials in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Asia. The company operates in two segments, Flexible Packaging and Pressure Sensitive Materials. The company is member of the S&P 500 and the S&P Dividend Aristocrats indexes. Bemis has paid uninterrupted dividends on its common stock since 1922 and increased payments to common shareholders every year for 28 years. The most recent dividend increase was in February, when the Board of Directors approved a 4.40% increase to 24 cents/share. The major competitors of Bemis Company include Sonoco Company (SON), Sealed Air (SEE) and Temple-Inland (TIN). Over the past decade this dividend growth stock has delivered... more

15 Dividend Stocks Providing An Inflation Hedge

Investing in dividend growth stocks is not about buying a current high yield, but instead building a high yield-on-cost over time. One of the criticisms I am hearing more often is, "That low yield isn't even covering inflation." This is a very valid concern, if true. The way low many low yielding stocks yields compensate for inflation is by growing their dividend well in excess of the inflation rate. Below are several companies building an inflation hedge for their shareholders by increasing their cash dividends: United-Guardian Inc. (UG) researches, develops, manufactures, and markets cosmetic ingredients, personal and health care products, pharmaceuticals, and specialty industrial products. May 12th the company increased its semi-annual dividend 20% to $0.36 per share. The... more

High Yield Dividend Stock Portfolio for May

Once per month I run a high-yield dividend stock momentum screen and use the results to manage a hypothetical stock portfolio on Scott's Investments. The strategy did relatively well in 2010 and is one I continue to track because of its promise. In recent months I have also done a variation of this strategy with the Dividend Champions list in which I only search stocks that have had a history of raising dividends for 25+ years. The screen looks for high yielding high momentum stocks and last month's list is here. I screen the S&P 500 for stocks yielding greater than 4% and then rank them by 6 month returns. There were 43 results on May 11th and per a previous article (see below for explanation), the highest momentum, high yield stocks have historically been the best performing so I have... more

Dividend Scan: C, HOC, ABC, PKY, DFG, RCII, D, CA

Amidst the negative movement of the U.S. stock indexes, several companies declared their future dividend plans. Some notable dividend payers are discussed here. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) has declared a dividend of 1 cent per share, payable on June 17, 2011. This is the first dividend declaration by the company is two years. Shares were down 1.23 percent, or 52 cents, to trade at $41.90. Shares of Holly Corp. (NYSE: HOC) added 2.15 percent, or $1.21, to trade at $57.37 as the company declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 15 cents per share. The dividend is payable on July 1, 2011 to shareholders of record on June 21, 2011. AmerisourceBergen Corp. (NYSE: ABC) shares fell 0.94 percent, or 40 cents, to trade at $42.04 despite increasing its quarterly dividend by 15 percent to... more

The Most Promising Dividends in Synthetics

Yields and growth rates and payout ratios, oh my!Before we get to those companies, though, you should understand just why you'd want to own dividend payers. These stocks can contribute a huge chunk of growth to your portfolio in good times, and bolster it during market downturns. As my colleague Matt Koppenheffer has noted: "Between 2000 and 2009, the average dividend-adjusted return on stocks with market caps above $5 billion and a trailing yield of 2.5% or better was a whopping 114%. Compare that to a 19% drop for the S&P 500."... more

Investing in High Dividend Yielding Asset Management Stocks

In a previous article, we compiled a list of top 30 U.S. financial stocks and showed that high dividend yielding financials have performed better than low dividend yielding financials since the beginning of this year. On the other hand, the average dividend yield of these large-cap financials is relatively low and dividend lovers may not find top U.S. financial stocks very appealing. However, we believe there are better dividend opportunities within the financial sector. Some industries contain high dividend yielding stocks which make dividend lovers comfortable to invest in. We like these high dividend stocks since they generally perform better and usually increase dividend payments over the next 5-10 years. Asset Management industry is one of the high dividend yielding industries within... more

3 utility stocks with reasonable valuations yielding over 4%.

Given the run up over the past two years in the stock market and the paucity of yielding producing instruments because of the low interest rate environment, finding good yielding equities with reasonable valuations is not an easy task. Here are three utilities that meet these criteria and are worth considering.American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP) – AEP engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power. It generates electricity using coal and lignite, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric energy. The company distributes electric power at wholesale to other electric utility companies, rural electric co-operatives, municipalities, and other market participants, as well as to retail customers in its service areas. It also operates non-regulated wind... more

25 'Overdue' Dividend Increases: Are Cuts on the Horizon?

In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, but some companies go longer before boosting their dividends, and this can raise concerns about their streaks of increases. New Series This is the second in a monthly series listing companies whose latest dividend increase might be considered “overdue,” since these companies have gone more than a year since their previous increase, a possible sign that the dividend (or at least the streak of increases) is in danger. (Note that the dates for these companies appears in Red in the Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF.) Some firms regularly go more than a year between... more

9 High-Yield Stocks With Strong Sources of Profitability

It is important to remember that dividends are not a guarantee of future payments; therefore, dividend sustainability should be a part of any analysis into potential income investments. One consideration is the strength of the company’s profitability, which directly funds the dividend. With this in mind, we ran a DuPont analysis of high dividend yield stocks. We last wrote about this screen on April 12, 2011. On that day, the screen produced 9 companies. Since then, 8 out of 9 companies mentioned in that article have outperformed the S&P 500 index (a success rate of 89%). The screen averaged a return of 5.5% vs. an index return of 2.1% (both of which calculated as price-weighted returns). Click here to access a full breakdown of the screen's past performance.click for expanded images... more

8 High-Yield Utilities Stocks Undervalued by the Graham Number

Many investors buy utilities stocks as a value investment because of their high dividends and generally low volatility relative to the market. Here we present an interesting list of high-dividend utilities that are currently undervalued based on the Graham equation.Benjamin Graham, the man who developed the equation for the Graham number, was a former mentor of Warren Buffett and is the so-called “Godfather” of value investing.The Graham Number, or the maximum price an investor should pay for a stock, is derived using only two data points: current earnings per share and current book value per share.

The Graham Number = Fair Value of a Stock = Square Root of (22.5) x (TTM Earnings per Share) x (MRQ Book Value per Share).

The math of the Graham number is... more