I’ve never used Dividend ReInvestment Plans (DRIPs) – programs usually run by publicly traded companies for their shareholders that inexpensively and automatically reinvest dividends in additional shares of the company’s stock – but I’d sure consider them if I were just starting out. Many will allow investors to begin building portfolios starting with only fractions [...]
For two contrasting takes on dividend stocks, check out Barron’s Best Dividend Plays for 2009 (as reported on Seeking Alpha) and AB Analytical Services’ list of stocks with Dividends on Death Row. Among the stocks in the first group – those that Barron’s feels have reasonably secure dividends – are Altria Group [[MO]], Bristol-Myers Squibb [...]
Once known as the quintessential high-growth technology stock, Microsoft [[MSFT]] has in recent years become viewed more as a mature, conservative value play that happens to be in the technology sector. Adding to this transformation was the company’s decision in 2003 to begin paying dividends to shareholders. Until fairly recently, however, the stock was yielding [...]
Companies have been cutting dividends left and right, leaving investors wondering “Which stocks will be next?” BusinessWeek attempts to answer that question in a slide show – Dividends in Danger – that highlights a variety of stocks where “dividend danger may lurk.” Some of the companies mentioned include U.S. Bancorp [[USB]], Alcoa [[AA]], Allstate [[ALL]], [...]
Few things will cause dividend investors to immediately sell a stock, but a dividend cut is one of them. So when pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer [[PFE]] recently announced that it was halving its annual dividend to $0.64 to help finance its acquisition of Wyeth [[WYE]], the stock was unceremoniously booted from thousands of dividend-focused portfolios – [...]
