mckeough
You may find that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have a place in your portfolio. Unlike many other financial innovations, they don’t load you up with heavy management fees or tie you down with high redemption charges if you decide to withdraw. Instead, they give you a low-cost, flexible, convenient alternative to mutual funds. They have another advantage. Since shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes, there’s a low turnover. That means you aren’t faced with the capital gains bills generated by the yearly distributions most mutual funds pay out to their unitholders....
Question: I would like your opinion on Africa Oil and Cabo Drilling. As always, your pearls of wisdom are very insightful and greatly appreciated.
Our investing strategy is a conservative one. We consistently recommend taking the long, rather than the short, view. But clearly not all stocks can be held indefinitely. A good portfolio is never a completely static one. Bringing in good stocks will obviously invigorate your portfolio. It is equally true that some stocks that fail to perform just aren’t worth holding on to. That leads many investors to ask us just when they should let go of a weak stock and replace it with something new....
Tech stocks continue to make headlines. Often, this is due to the competitive race to get new products on the market. Sometimes, it is due to the spectacular rise—or spectacular fall—of a tech stock’s share price. But successful investors look beyond the headlines, to a company’s measurable strengths and weaknesses, to judge its long-term prospects, as we do today with one of the best-known names in the industry. GOOGLE INC. (Nasdaq symbol GOOG; investor.google.com) is the world’s leading Internet search engine. The search service is free, but it provides a platform for Google to sell ads on its websites. Ads account for 96% of its total revenue....
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investing topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on a selection of the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week, the subject of tech stocks came up as one Inner Circle member asked about a company that makes software that is vitally important for computers and mobile devices, but also faces a highly competitive market....
The fast-food business is generally associated with inexpensive food and plain décor. It is rarely associated with healthy eating. But one U.S. chain has adopted a higher quality approach, so far with success. CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL (New York symbol CMG; www.chipotle.com) is a Denver-based Mexican-restaurant chain. The company charges slightly higher prices than fast-food chains, but it offers higher-quality food, including naturally raised meat, and better decor and service....
Successful investors know that there is more to good stock investing than simply picking stocks whose share prices will rise. You add a great deal of value to your portfolio when you also select stocks that are prepared to distribute their profits to the shareholders. A company can share the wealth in two main ways—it can buy back its own shares, or it can pay dividends. Both pay off for investors, especially in BCE’s case....
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investing topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on a selection of the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week an Inner Circle, one question on stock market investments concerned a company that executed a major spinoff this past autumn, changing its name and turning its focus toward premium spirits. Q: Hi Pat: Can you give your opinion on Beam Inc.? It has a lot of good brands. Looking forward to your comments....
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investing topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on a selection of the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. One question this week concerned energy stocks, specifically one stock that expects to benefit as the search for new oil production increasingly leads to the deposits found deep in the world’s oceans....
This past autumn, a long-time reader and portfolio management client asked a question that other investors may wonder about in today’s turbulent markets. He wrote, “You constantly remind members to have a balanced portfolio and strategy for long-term success when investing. But when do you take profits? You have mentioned a couple of times to sell, such as when a stock makes up too much of your total portfolio, or if a company shows questionable management or business decisions. My main question is why don’t we sell when stocks move up and there are profits to be had?”...