In addition, Pat thinks then beginner investors should cultivate two important qualities: a healthy sense of skepticism and patience.
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Investors should approach all investments with a healthy sense of skepticism. This can help keep you out of fraudulent stocks that masquerade as high-quality stocks. It will also keep you out of legally operated, but poorly managed, companies that promise more than they can possibly deliver.
If you are a new investor, you should also realize that losing patience can cause you to sell your best choices right before a big rise. All too often, investors buy a promising stock just as it enters a period of price stagnation. Even the best-performing stocks run into these unpredictable phases from time to time. They move mainly sideways in a wide range for months or years before their next big rise begins. (Stock brokers often refer to these stocks as “dead money.”)
If you lack patience, you run a big risk of selling your best choices in the midst of one of these phases, prior to the next big move upward. If you lose patience and sell, you are particularly likely to do so in the low end of the trading range, when stock prices have weakened and confidence in the stock has waned.
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On August 25, 2025, Keurig Dr Pepper announced that it would acquire JDE Peet’s (symbol JDEPY on the U.S. Over-the-Counter market) for $18 billion.
In the quarter ended June 28, 2025, Kraft’s sales fell 1.9%, to $6.35 billion from $6.48 billion a year earlier. If you exclude divestitures and currency rates, sales decreased 2.0%. Higher selling prices (up 0.7%) were not enough to offset lower volumes (down 2.7%).
Of course, spinoffs have the potential to reward investors in other ways. Those new stocks—and indeed their former parents—often attract lucrative takeover offers within just a few years of a breakup.
The enhanced takeover appeal reflects the smaller, more-focused operations of both the spinoff and the parent. Their reduced market caps also make it easier for would-be buyers to fund their acquisition. In addition, the smaller operations are easier for buyers to integrate into their existing businesses. That often translates into a quick revenue and earnings boost.
This portfolio is a good starting point for investors who need income. It’s also a starting point for conservative investors, since regular dividends are an indicator of investment quality.
Check our Ratings
All investors should invest mainly in stocks from our “Average” or higher TSINetwork Ratings.
Today’s top-performing AI stocks are Nvidia, which makes the powerful computer chips needed to run AI programs; Microsoft, which is a major investor in AI, including investing in the firm behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot; and Alphabet (Google), which is using AI to improve the quality of its market-leading search engine and advertising services.