Topic: How To Invest

I’ve recently seen a computerized study that shows that a number of Canadian stocks with high dividend yields are not good buys because they have a poor return on equity. Several of the stocks on this list are on your newsletter pick lists. Could you please comment on the disparity? I suspect that I am missing a piece of the riddle.

Article Excerpt

A computerized study sounds authoritative, but it still reflects a set of investment opinions, which may or may not lead to profitable investment decisions. We don’t use a computer program to make buy and sell recommendations. All our recommendations, like our rating system and our assignment of stocks to one of the five main economic sectors, involve some analytical judgments, not just statistics and ratios. Return on equity is defined as net earnings divided by shareholders’ equity, expressed as a percentage. It’s one measure of how well a company’s managers are using its net worth to generate profits. A key problem with ratios like return on equity is that they are only as good as the numbers they are based on, and these are often fuzzy. For example, shareholders’ equity mostly reflects the value of a company’s assets as they appear on its balance sheet. But the balance-sheet figures may be misleading. If the company’s assets have depreciated since it…