the Trade-Radar + TradingStockAlerts blog

Now that the Fed has rolled out QE2, many investors are surprised that bonds have been struggling, especially the longer maturities. Those ETFs that hold 20 and 30 year Treasuries and corporate bonds, for example, have been especially weak. While this has resulted in higher yields it is having the unfortunate effect of decreasing the capital gains that investors have enjoyed after a multi-month run-up in prices. This is making life complicated for dividend and income investors. Among the features of the Alert HQ Premium site there are several stock screens that focus on dividends. In particular, I will be identifying those stocks that just raised their dividend during the previous week and yet are still more or less in the value stock category. The following list is from this weekend's screen: Symbol Name Last Price EV to EBITDA PE Ratio Price to Sales New Dividend Yield New Annual Dividend Old Annual Dividend AFSI AmTrust Financial Se...

This weekend's report on reasonable value stocks that increased dividends in the last week included two stocks. The one I'd like to focus on is Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. The symbol is ARLP. The company just raised its dividend from $3.24 to $3.32 which works out to a forward annual dividend rate of 5.5% which, in these days of zero interest rate policy, is not too shabby. As the title of this post suggests, the company is engaged in the production and marketing of coal for utilities and industrial users. They also provide systems and services for the mining and transportation of coal. I alluded to the fact that the company qualifies as one of my "reasonable value" stocks. With a PE of 8, a PEG less than 1, Enterprise Value/EBITDA less than 6, Price-to-Sales less than the average for both the sector and the S&P 500, the stock certainly can't be considered particularly over-priced. In terms of growth, y-o-y revenues increased by 37% and y-o-y ear...

I thought this was a pretty good week for those who like stocks with dividends. According to our Dividend Growers report , there were 50 stocks that increased dividends last week. Unfortunately, there were also 32 stocks that cut their dividends. It's worth looking at the composition of each list. One thing that jumps out is that of the 50 that increased dividends, 22 were funds, not actual companies. Many of the companies that are on the list, though, were in the energy, financial or REIT sectors. Similarly, of the 32 stocks that reduced dividends last week , 22 are funds. Interestingly, seven of these dividend cutters are municipal bond funds. With interest rates on government and corporate bonds at historical lows, it is no wonder that bond funds of all types are reducing their payouts rather than chasing yield by going further out on the risk continuum. What dividend lovers might like, however, is the list of value stocks with increasing dividends , what I call Reasonable...

There have been a plethora of posts about dividend stocks lately. Quite a few have pointed out that many stocks that offer dividends now yield more than Treasuries or corporate bonds. Others tout the advantage of dividends being able to add to total return in a choppy, range-bound market. For a good round up of the latest articles on this topic, you can visit the Investing Ideas page at Seeking Alpha and check out the section on dividends. One of the planned features of the upcoming Alert HQ Premium site will be a couple of stock screens that focus on dividends. In particular, I will be identifying those stocks that just raised their dividend during the previous week and yet are still more or less in the value stock category. The following list is from this weekend's screen. Symbol Name New Dividend Yield New Annual Dividend Old Annual Dividend ACGY Acergy S.A. 1.24% 0.21 N/A BOBE Bob Evans Farms, Inc. 2.91% 0.80 0.72 ...

With the stock market in distress and bonds yielding practically nothing many analysts and bloggers are proposing that investors should focus on companies paying dividends. For this post, I've combined my Reasonable Value screen with a filter for those companies that have raised their dividend in the last week. Two stocks below qualified and, coincidentally, both raised their dividends by $0.08 Symbol Name Industry PE PEG Price  To Sales Price To Book EV To EBITDA Debt To Equity New Dividend Previous Dividend AFL Aflac Inc. Accident & Health Insurance 12.52 0.65 1.2 2.28 7.75 0.2645 1.2 1.12 ALTE Alterra Capital Holdings Ltd. Property-Casualty Insurers 4.91 0.62 1.22 0.73 N/A 0.0992 0.48 0.40 So are investors favoring these two companies? Here are the charts for each: Though both stocks have wilted lately, Aflac seems to be holding up a bit better. Both the 200-day moving average and the 50-day moving average are still headi...