Stocks Going Ex Dividend the First Week of March 2012

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

M&T Bank Corporation (MTB) market cap: $10.4B ex div date: 3/1/2015 yield: 3.42%

Old Republic International Corporation (ORI) market cap: $2.8B ex div date: 3/1/2016 yield: 6.55%

Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) market cap: $2.1B ex div date: 3/1/2017 yield: 6.16%

Banco Bradesco SA ADR (BBD) market cap: $33.8B ex div date: 3/2/2012 yield: 3.33%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of February 2012

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Bank of Hawaii Corporation (BOH) market cap: $2.1B ex div date: 2/27/2012 yield: 3.8%

DNP Select Income Fund Inc. (DNP) market cap: $2.7B ex div date: 2/27/2012 yield: 6.9%

MGE Energy, Inc. (MGEE) market cap: $1.1B ex div date: 2/28/2012 yield: 3.4%

NBT Bancorp Inc. (NBTB) market cap: $755.8M ex div date: 2/28/2012 yield: 3.5%

Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. (AGL) market cap: $251.7M ex div date: 2/28/2012 yield: 3.3%

SUPERVALU INC. (SVU) market cap: $1.5B ex div date: 2/28/2012 yield: 5.0%

Trustmark Corp (TRMK) market cap: $1.5B ex div date: 2/28/2012 yield: 3.7%

FutureFuel Corp. (FF) market cap: $505.9M ex div date: 2/28/2012 yield: 3.3%

Arrow Financial Corporation (AROW) market cap: $298.4M ex div date: 2/29/2012 yield: 3.9%

Dominion Resources, Inc. (D) market cap: $29.0B ex div date: 2/29/2012 yield: 4.1%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

27 Ways to Buy Facebook Stock Before It Goes Public

Ever since Facebook announced that the company will have its initial public offering later this year, I have been inundated with requests from friends, relatives, and acquaintances asking how they can buy stock in Facebook on the IPO. These are people who have never talked to me before about investments, and many have never invested before in their life. Normally, if an investor is lucky enough to buy a stock on the initial offering, the investor is usually rewarded with a huge gain in the stock price during the first day or two.

So how does one get stock as part of the initial offering? It's not just luck, it's wealth. First of all, the three lead underwriters are Morgan Stanley (MS), J. P. Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS). Underwriters are the investment brokerage firms that raise money for companies. They are also in charge of the allocation of shares to the investor. The second tier underwriters are BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, and Allen & Company.

So if you have an account with any of these firms, you might have a chance of getting some shares. Often, the underwriters will distribute shares to other brokerage firms, but with a popular offering like this, the allocation may be slim pickings. That's step one, the connection with the investment company. Step two is getting your broker to give you some shares.

According to a spokesman at TD Ameritrade (AMTD), they recently implemented a policy that you must have $250,000 in your account before you can be considered to receive shares of an IPO. That's the wealth part. Then if there is more demand for stock than are shares available, the firm would implement a lottery system to determine which clients would get shares.

Fortunately, there are other ways of buying shares in Facebook ahead of the stock offering, although the ownership of the shares would be indirect. One way would be to buy stocks of companies that have invested some of their funds in Facebook. An example is Microsoft (MSFT), which owns roughly 1.3% of the social networking giant. Of course, this ownership represents a very small portion of Microsoft's assets.

Another way of having some Facebook stock is through the ownership of mutual funds. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has turned up over 20 mutual funds that own shares of Facebook in varying degrees. Morgan Stanley has several funds that own Facebook such as Morgan Stanley Capital Opportunities (CPOAX), Morgan Stanley Focused Growth (AMOBX), and Morgan Stanley Inst Capital Growth (MSEQX).

The T. Rowe Price family of mutual funds has over a dozen funds with Facebook stock, including T. Rowe Price Media & Telecommunications Fund (PRMTX), T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund (RPBAX), T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund (TRBCX), T. Rowe Price Global Stock (PRGSX), and T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund (PRGTX). Please note that for most of these funds, Facebook makes up a very small portion of the portfolio.

An alternative to investing in the mutual funds is to invest in the mutual fund management firm. T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) is the asset management holding company that manages the numerous mutual funds that own some shares of Facebook.

There are also a couple of closed end funds that own shares of Facebook. A closed end fund is similar to a mutual fund, in that it owns a diversified portfolio of stocks, however, mutual fund prices are based on the intrinsic value of the shares, called the Net Asset Value, whereas the price of a CEF is based on supply and demand and can trade way above or way below the net asset value. One of the CEFs is Firsthand Value Technology (SVVC), which has about 5% of its assets invested in Facebook.

The last alternative to buying the stock ahead of time is through one of the companies that handle private stock trading. Unfortunately, this option is only available to accredited investors. If you don't know what an accredited investor is, you probably aren't one.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, an individual accredited investor is "a natural person who has individual net worth, or joint net worth with the person’s spouse, that exceeds $1 million at the time of the purchase, excluding the value of the primary residence of such person; or a natural person with income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or joint income with a spouse exceeding $300,000 for those years and a reasonable expectation of the same income level in the current year. If you fall into this category, then you could consider contacting SharesPost or Second Market, otherwise, don't even try.

To see a list of over 25 of the companies that own Facebook stock, check out the free list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, which can be downloaded, sorted, and updated.

Will Facebook be a hot stock? With 845 million users as of the end of 2011, that's a lot of potential buyers. If just one percent of Facebookers buy just 100 shares once the stock goes public, that's 845 million shares being purchased. By the way, the anticipated stock ticker symbol for Facebook is expected to be FB.

Disclosure: Author owns SVVC. No recommendations of any of the above stocks is expressed or implied.

By Stockerblog.com

Gross Cigarette Warnings Delay May Help Tobacco Stocks

Remember those gross anti-smoking warnings that were supposed to appear on cigarette packages? Well the tobacco companies have won a temporary delay from a U.S. District Judge giving the court more time to review the FDA mandate.

Obviously, many investors wouldn't touch these stocks with a twenty foot cigarette holder. Other investors, who don't have concerns, like the 'bad company discount' which tends to give tobacco stocks a higher yield than stocks of other industries. There are ten publicly traded cigarette and tobacco companies, almost all of which pay dividends, that have been turned up by WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Yields are as high as 8.9%.

One example is Altria Group Inc. (MO), which is a Virginia based company that makes and markets cigarettes, cigars, and beer. It is the largest cigarette company by market cap in the US. The stock has a forward PE of 12.6, and pays a very generous yield of 5.6%. The company's brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament, Benson & Hedges, Basic, L&M, Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky.

Lorillard, Inc. (LO) has a dividend payout rate of 5.0%. The stock, which markets the Newport, Kent, True, Maverick, Old Gold, and Max brands, trades at 12.9 times forward earnings. The company just boosted its dividend payout rate by an incredible 19%.

Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) makes and markets cigarettes and other tobacco products including the Camel, Kool, Pall Mall, Doral, Winston, Salem, Misty, Capri, Dunhill, and Natural American Spirit brands. The stock has a forward PE ratio of 12.8, and pays a nice yield of 5.5%.

For a free list of all the high yield tobacco stocks, which can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Also, if you haven't seen the Graphic Color Anti Smoking Pictures to Appear on Cigarette Packs, you should check them out.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

How to Print a Car from a Printer (Yes a Real Car, Not a Toy)

If you missed my article last month about the companies that are involved in three dimensional printing, you should check it out. I described how 3-D printers could print something as small as a speck of dust. You might say to yourself, 'that's nice, but if I want to print something in three dimensions, I want something useful.'

Well now it is possible to print out an automobile. Yes, a real car, not a toy car. The car is called a Urbee, it really runs, and it is build to last 30 years. The engine is a hybrid which runs on both gasoline and batteries.

The large printer creates the car with numerous layers of composite material. The car was produced by Kor EcoLogic, based in Winnepeg, Canada. It can go up to 70 miles an hour and gets about 100 miles per gallon. With mass production, it is expected to sell for $50,000. But its not the environmentally conscious aspects of the car or the long futuristic shape of the car that generates interest, it is the fact that the car was printed. If you want more info on companies involved in 3D printing check out this article.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of February 2012

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (HCSG) market cap: $1.2B ex div date: 2/22/2012 yield: 3.6%

Park National Corporation (PRK) market cap: $1.1B ex div date: 2/22/2012 yield: 5.3%

Main Street Capital Corporation (MAIN) market cap: $582.5M ex div date: 2/22/2012 yield: 7.4%

AG Growth International Inc. (AGGZF) market cap: $507.3M ex div date: 2/24/2012 yield: 6.5%

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) market cap: $179.4B ex div date: 2/24/2012 yield: 3.5%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

The Perfect Investment: 2.9% US Government Guaranteed with No Minimum Investment

What would you think of an investment with the following characteristics:

1. Almost 3% average annualized return on your investment
2. Inflation-proof
3. Short term or long term investment: your choice
4. Guaranteed by the United States Government
5. No minimum investment
6. An easily transferable bearer investment with no registration required
7. The investment will never go down in value

Can you guess what this investment is? It's the Forever Stamp, the stamp issued by the US Post Office is used to purchase one ounce of postage, no matter how high the price of postage rises, even if the postage rate rises to $20 per ounce. This price of first class postage just went up on January 22 from 44 cents to 45 cents. It was only bumped up by a penny but it still works out to a 2.1% increase.

Postage was 39 cents an ounce in January of 2007. If you look at the increase in the cost for one ounce of first class postage over the last five years, it works out to an average annual increase of 2.9%.

You can still buy these stamps and take advantage of this 'investment'. Over the long term, with inflation inevitable, postage rates will continue to increase. If you still pay a lot of bills by mail, or you own a small company that does a lot of mass mail-outs, or you are part of a club or group that sends out printed monthly newsletters, then maybe it would be worthwhile to buy some of these stamps.

Financial Blast from the Past

Food carts on Broad Street in the Financial District in 1904

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of February 2012

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Corus Entertainment Inc. (CJREF) market cap: $1.6B ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 4.6%

E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (DD) market cap: $47.1B ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 3.2%

Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED) market cap: $17.5B ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 4.1%

Enbridge Inc. (ENB) market cap: $28.8B ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 3.0%

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (ARR) market cap: $745.7M ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 18.6%

Exelon Corporation (EXC) market cap: $26.5B ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 5.3%

Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) market cap: $45.7B ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 4.9%

Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR) market cap: $8.2B ex div date: 2/13/2012 yield: 4.6%

Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) market cap: $28.6B ex div date: 2/15/2012 yield: 4.7%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

How to Invest in the Super Bowl

This year, the American Football Conference [AFC] champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference [NFC] champion New York Giants are in the Super Bowl XLVI held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The game used to be a popular indicator of the future of the stock market. The indicator states that if the NFC team wins, we will have a bull market this year, but if the AFC team wins, it will be a bear market. The indicator has been correct about 80% of the time.

Corporations are shelling out $3.5 million for a 30 second television commercial. Most of the companies that have chosen to advertise during the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast are publicly traded stocks, so if you think these companies will benefit from this advertising, now is the time to take a closer look at them and get a touchdown with your picks. Here is a list of the advertisers along with their stock ticker symbols.

Toyota ( TM ) has a couple commercials promoting its Toyota Camry, plus a Lexus ad. Toyota trades at 11 times forward earnings and yields 1.2%.

General Motors ( GM ) advertises the Cadillac, plus it is really pushing various Chevy brands including the Chevy Volt, the Chevy Silverado, and the Chevy Sonic through three different Chevrolet commercials. GM has a forward price to earnings ratio of 7 but does not pay a dividend.

Anheuser-Busch Inbev (BUD) is marketing Bud Light beer though its commercial. The stock has a forward PE of 15 and yield 1.5%.

Pepsi ( PEP ) tries to show how Pepsi MAX is better than Coke Zero. Pepsi pays a nice yield of 3.1% and trades at 15 times forward earnings.

E*TRADE ( ETFC ) used the famous baby to promote the E*TRADE's new 360 investing dashboard. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 13.

Groupe Danone ( DANOY ) is the company that makes Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt, another Super Bowl advertised product. The stock has a forward PE of 16.

Bridgestone ( BRDCY ) is another advertiser. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 12.

Honda ( HMC ) is pushing its Acura NSX and Honda CR-V. The stock has a forward PE of 9 and a CD beating yield of 2%.

Procter & Gamble ( PG ) is publicizing its Downy Unstopables product. It trades at 15 times forward earnings and has a fairly high dividend payout of 3.3%.

Coca-Cola ( KO ) has its 'Polar bears like Coke' commercials. Coke yields 2.8% and trades at 17 times earnings.

Skechers ( SKX ) is promoting, guess what, Skechers. The stock has a forward PE of 28.

If you like interesting stock lists like this one, don't forget to check out the other lists available at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns TM and PEP at the time the article was written.

Super Bowl is a registered trademark of the NFL.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of February 2012

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (MDC) market cap: $997.0M ex div date: 2/6/2012 yield: 4.7%

Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. (TNP) market cap: $304.6M ex div date: 2/7/2012 yield: 9.3%

Navios Maritime Partners L.P. (NMM) market cap: $915.9M ex div date: 2/7/2012 yield: 11.0%

Astral Media, Inc. (AAIAF) market cap: $2.2B ex div date: 2/8/2012 yield: 3.2%

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP) market cap: $19.9B ex div date: 2/8/2012 yield: 4.5%

AmeriGas Partners, L.P. (APU) market cap: $3.8B ex div date: 2/8/2012 yield: 6.9%

Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (HCBK) market cap: $3.7B ex div date: 2/8/2012 yield: 4.4%

Spectra Energy Corp. (SE) market cap: $20.7B ex div date: 2/8/2012 yield: 3.5%

Wisconsin Energy Corporation (WEC) market cap: $8.0B ex div date: 2/10/2012 yield: 3.5%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Free Copy of the Facebook Prospectus

I think everyone on Facebook has heard by now, Facebook is going public, and millions will be scrambling to buy some shares. If you are interested in reading up on this offering an all the juicy details, WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has a free link to the Facebook prospectus. There are a lot of pages, so it may take about 15 seconds to open.