The ins and outs of… our ‘hold’ recommendations

Article Excerpt

A subscriber recently asked how we can recommend a stock as a “hold” at the same time we give it a “Highest” dividend sustainability rating. Our TSI Dividend Sustainability Ratings system relies on eight factors to determine a company’s ability to maintain its dividend, and increase it over time. Brokers often use “hold,” “reduce” and “source of cash for new buying” as euphemisms for “sell.” That’s because they don’t want to offend potential underwriting or corporate-finance clients. Those companies generate far more fees than individual investors. We stay out of underwriting and corporate finance, so we don’t suffer from this conflict of interest. If we think that a stock’s prospects make it a sell, we say so. We switch a “buy” recommendation to “hold” when we feel there are better choices for new buying, but we still like the stock’s longer-term prospects. After all, every sale involves some costs. Then, too, sometimes we underestimate one of our holds, and it does better than we…