Hess Corp. (HES) Declares $0.10 Quarterly Dividend; 0.6% Yield

Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) today declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.10 per common share, $0.40 annualized. The dividend is payable on the Common Stock of the Corporation on January 3, 2011 to holders of record at the close of business on December 20, 2010. The ex-dividend date is December 16, 2010. Yield on the dividend is 0.6%.... more

Cracker Barrel (CBRL) Declares $0.22 Quarterly Dividend; 1.6% Yield

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBRL) today announced that the Board of Directors has declared a regular dividend to common shareholders of $0.22 per share, $0.88 annualized. The dividend is payable on February 7, 2011, to shareholders of record on January 21, 2011. The ex-dividend date is January 19, 2010. Yield on the dividend is 1.6%.... more

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) Comps Flat in November; Guides Q410 EPS; Declares $0.50 Special Dividend, $0.11 Quarterly Dividend; Authorizes 16M Share Buyback

American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE: AEO) reports total sales for the month of November were $272 million, up 2% from the same period last year. Same store sales were flat. The company sees Q410 EPS of $0.43 - $0.46. Consensus sees an EPS of $0.45. Declares $0.50 special dividend. Also declares $0.11 quarterly dividend, $0.44 annualized. The dividends are payable on December 27, 2010 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 13, 2010. The ex-dividend date is December 9, 2010. Yield on the special dividend is 3%. Yield on the quarterly dividend is 2.6%. The board of directors also voted to extend the company’s current repurchase authorization of 16 million shares through February 2, 2013.... more

Top Yielding Stocks Selling Below Book Value

Imagine that you own shares of a company that has a million shares that are trading for $10 per share. This would give the company a market capitalization of $10 million. Now further imagine that if you add up all the assets of the company, such as bank accounts, inventory, equipment, and real estate, it comes to $15 million, then adding all the liabilities such as debt and short term loans amounts to $3 million. When you subtract the liabilities from the assets, it gives the company a net worth of $12 million. Divide that number by the million shares and you end up with a $12 per share book value, in very simple terms. What that means is, also in very simple terms, if you buy the stock today and the company goes out of business today, you would end up with a $2 or 20% increase in your... more

Prepare for the Next Downturn With Low-Debt, High-Dividend Stocks

When the stock market collapsed in 2008 and 2009, it seemed that the carnage was indiscriminate. Most stocks’ correlations went to nearly 1.0 and it seemed there was nowhere to hide. But it pays to dig deeper and look at companies that held up well during the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It turns out that many of these companies have stable growth, low debt, and relatively high dividends.Let’s take a look at a few of them relative to what the S&P 500 did from the peak in 2007 to the trough in 2009.... more

From PIIGS to Piggies: Three Irish Speculative Opportunities, Three Yield Ideas for the Week

Apparently, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has been replaced by a big box full of IOUs and returned checks. Ireland has taken it on the chin like a peat farmer named “Paddy” in a pub brawl, financially speaking, that is. The EU, with the reluctant and somewhat disgusted Germans playing point guard, and the IMF have, again, cobbled together yet another bail-out plan to rescue a peripheral European economy in order to maintain confidence in the grand experiment known as “the Euro”. (Can you imagine the brainstorming sessions before its birth? “Hey guys! I got a great idea! Let’s have a common currency without a central bank amongst different sovereign countries that have spent most of recorded history at war with each other!”).It goes without saying that the broad... more

High Yield AMEX Stocks

The American Stock Exchange, also known as the AMEX, was founded in 1842 as the New York Curb Exchange. It got that name since stock traders and brokers used to stand out on the street by the curb and trade stocks back in the early 1800's. On October 1, 2008, NYSE Euronext (NYX) took over the American Stock Exchange. The AMEX is now known as NYSE Amex Equities.Although the AMEX is now a division of the NYSE, over 500 stocks are still traded on the exchange, and according to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are over 20 AmEx stocks with yields above 2.5%. Many of these stocks are closed end funds, real estate investment trusts also known as REITs, and oil and natural gas income partnerships. But there are a few gems that are regular corporations.... more

ConAgra: Reasonably Undervalued in Relation to Its Dividend

Today’s Investment Observation is on ConAgra (CAG). According to Yahoo Finance,ConAgra Foods, Inc. operates as a food company in North America and internationally. It operates in two segments, Consumer Foods and Commercial Foods. The Consumer Foods segment provides branded, private label and customized food products, which are sold in various retail and food service channels. The Commercial Foods segment provides commercially branded foods and ingredients principally to food service, food manufacturing and industrial customers.After a cut in 2006, ConAgra has had a steady, albeit irregular, increase of its dividend. Prior to 2006, ConAgra had a 28-year history of consecutive dividend increases, according to Mergent’s Handbook of Dividend Achievers. As recently as Sept. 21, 2010,... more

14 Rallying Stocks Boosting Dividend Payments

The following is a list of rally stocks, i.e. trading above 20-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages. All of these stocks have raised their quarterly dividend payments over the last three years.Is most of the good news already priced into these names? Or is there more upside? What do you think? Full details below.... more

Drew Industries (DW) Declares Special Dividend of $1.50/Share, Yielding 7.16%

Drew Industries (NYSE: DW) declares a special cash dividend of $1.50/share, payable on Dec. 28 to shareholders of record on Dec. 20. The ex-dividend date is on Dec. 16. With shares of Drew Industries closing at $20.94 today, the special dividend will yield 7.16%.... more