investing

A key part of successful dividend investing is picking stocks, such Procter & Gamble and Walmart, with long histories of rising, sustainable payments.


PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $159 is a buy. The company (New York symbol PG; Income-Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.4 billion; Market cap: $381.6 billion; Dividend yield: 2.3%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.pg.com) is one of the world’s largest makers of household and personal-care goods....

Last week we published Part One of the text of the most-recent letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients, in February this year.

Part Two appears below. It covers the hidden risks in the so-called “alternative investments” that have come on the market in recent years....

China currently dominates rare-earth production due in part to higher labour costs and tighter environmental restrictions in the U.S. However, politicians and government officials in the U.S. are now trying to promote production in the U.S. MP Materials should benefit from that effort....

This is the time in each calendar quarter when we usually devote this spot in our Inner Circle to our latest letter to Portfolio-Management clients. However, recent events call for a change in our routine. In particular, before we get into the client letter, I want to address an issue that is showing up a lot in the media, in questions from our clients and readers, and in my own mind:

• What should investors do about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
• Do we need to worry that the conflict can explode into World War III?
• How should investors react—if at all—to Vladimir Putin’s veiled threats to bring nuclear weapons into the battlefield?

To get started, I’m going to ask readers a question: Do these lyrics sound familiar?

“In 1814, we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip’
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans

We fired our guns and the British kep’ a-comin’
There wasn’ nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
way down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

We looked down the river
And we see’d the British come
And there must have been a hundred of ‘em
Beatin’ on the drums
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
We hid behind our cotton bales and didn’t say a thing

We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’
There wasn’ nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Old Hickory said we could take ‘em by surprise
If we didn’t fire our muskets
‘Til we looked ‘em in the eye

We held our fire
‘Til we see’d their faces well
Then we opened up our squirrel guns
And really gave ‘em, well….we…

… fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’
There wasn’ nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began a’runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Yeah, they ran through the briars
And they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes
Where a rabbit couldn’t go
They ran so fast
That the hounds couldn’t catch ‘em
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

—from “The Battle of New Orleans,” by Johnny Horton, 1958

I don’t offer the following as an exhaustive or scholarly analysis by any means....

TWITTER INC., $45.08, symbol TWTR on New York, offers users a global platform to express themselves on the Internet in real time. Its website lets people create, distribute, and discover content. Platform partners include publishers, media outlets, and developers.

Advertisers use Twitter’s Promoted Products, the majority of which are pay-for-performance, to promote their brands, products, and services....

Secular trends are changes in the economy, business and social worlds that gain strength over long periods and last a long, long time—many years, if not decades. Often, they last through several market downturns. However, there is no clear, generally accepted definition of a secular trend.

One of the most dangerous traps you can fall into as an investor is to make up your mind so firmly about an investment that you assume it is part of a secular trend and refuse to reconsider the idea....

Canada’s federal government recently announced new greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. Those include cutting emissions from oil and gas producers by 42% before 2031. That new target is more aggressive than Suncor’s or Imperial Oil’s own plan. Even so, meeting it is unlikely to severely impact their earnings considering the government will help offset their costs for new carbon-reduction technologies....

A: RealtyMogul Apartment Growth REIT is a private REIT (more on those below) with around $236 million in assets. The company pays quarterly distributions that yield a high 4.5%. The REIT has a 1.25% management fee.

RealtyMogul Apartment Growth REIT invests in apartment buildings located in markets its managers believe can offer current income as well as growth potential.

The REIT currently owns eight properties: four in Texas, and one each in Connecticut, Michigan, Florida and New York state.

To boost investor returns, the REIT aims to add value to its properties through property exterior and unit improvements....

Here are three rules for investing successfully in fast-growing stocks:

1. These stocks tend to be highly volatile, but not consistently so. They may go racing up and down, but also go through long periods of relative price stability.
2. If you wait to buy on a dip, you may sit through a long rise and miss out on a huge gain.
3. A bigger risk of waiting to buy on a dip is that the downturn that spurs you to buy may look like a dip at first, but turn out to be the start of a major decline.

Waiting for a dip sounds like conservative, risk-reduced investing....

If you are asking the question, “What is a good amount of stocks to buy?” then you should consider our recommendations on this key portfolio-building topic.