dividend

A dividend is a cash payout that serves as a way for companies to share the profits they’ve accumulated through their operations. These payouts are drawn from earnings and cash flow paid to the shareholders of the company. Commonly these dividends are paid quarterly, although they may also be paid annually or even monthly as well. A dividend can produce as much as a quarter of your total return over long periods. Some good companies reinvest profits instead of paying a dividend. But fraudulent and failing companies hardly ever pay a dividend. So if you only buy stocks that pay dividends, you’ll automatically stay out of almost all the market’s worst stocks. For a true measure of stability, focus on companies that have maintained or raised their dividends during recessions and stock market downturns. These firms leave themselves enough room to handle periods of earnings volatility. By continually rewarding investors, and retaining enough cash to finance their businesses, they provide an attractive mix of safety, income and growth. Dividends are an important contributor to your long-term gains, and dividend-paying stocks tend to expose you to less risk than non-dividend-payers. That’s why the majority of your stocks should be dividend-payers at all times. As you get older and closer to retirement, you should raise the proportion of dividend-paying stocks in your portfolio, to cut risk and improve the stability of your investment results. To maximize your investment returns with the least risk, follow TSI Network and use our three-part Successful Investor strategy:

  1. Invest mainly in well-established companies;
  2. Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; Utilities);
  3. Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

Discover how to put an extra strength in your portfolio with our specific advice on how to identify high-quality dividend stocks. It’s all in our newly updated report, Dividend Paying Stocks: How High Dividend Stocks Can Supercharge Your Income Investing. And it’s yours FREE!

Read More Close
Sharp share-price drops due to the coronavirus outbreak will likely encourage activist investors to raise their stake in—and influence on—these three firms (including Sony—see box). However, for reasons outlined below, we advise you to stay on the sidelines, at least for now.


OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP....
We first recommended Leidos to you as buy in our December 2017 issue at $62; your shares then rose to $125 in February 2020 before the coronavirus outbreak pulled down the market. Even so, Leidos is still up an impressive 50% since our initial 2017 recommendation.


Your long-term prospects with this stock remain strong....
Spinoffs offer flexibility. Spinning off unwanted assets lets the parent company’s managers focus on that part of the business they want to retain. Usually they hold on to operations best suited to their talents.


Spun-off shares often slump when they begin trading. Many investors routinely dump stock they receive in a spinoff....
We think today’s bear market has done as much damage as it is likely to do. In fact, the market has now moved back up enough that investors worry about whether to buy now or to “wait for a dip” when “things settle down.”


My view is that you should look beyond short-term setbacks....
Under a new long-term strategy, Pfizer is concentrating on what it does best: developing new patented drugs that generate strong returns for its shareholders.


As part of that plan, the company is merging its over-the-counter and generic drugs businesses with those of other pharmaceutical firms to form joint ventures....
Here’s a little background about our organization:

After decades as an investor writer/analyst/editor/advisor, I launched The Successful Investor in January 1995. Soon after, I began the process of applying to practice as an investment portfolio manager, initially just in Ontario....
A: Zoom Video Communications, Inc., $140.95, symbol ZM on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 127.5 million; Market cap: $37.9 billion; www.zoom.us), provides a cloud-based video communications platform to connect users—on various devices and in different locations—for a single online meeting....
For successful investors, good portfolio management centres around building a well-balanced portfolio.
The United States has been the world’s leading economy for many decades.


Despite the rapid progression of the Chinese economy and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we think U.S. companies will continue to offer ETF investors unparalleled opportunities.


VANGUARD U.S....