Did You Make 20% on Greek Stocks Today?

Over a week ago, on July 3 when the stock market was closed, I wrote an article called Hey Contrarians! Why Not Buy the Stocks of Greece? In that posting, I wrote about a few stocks of Greece  that a contrarian might take a chance on. Did you invest?

The first stock mentioned in the article was National Bank of Greece (NBG), a low priced speculative stock that you could have bought the next business day at 99 cents a share, based on the closing price that day. Today you could have sold the stock for 1.20 a share, however the stock traded as high as 1.35 a share today. This would have generated a 20% return for you in just one week.

Costamare Inc. (CMRE) was another stock in the write-up, which went from 18.10 a share to 18.14 a share, a slight increase. However, buyers of Safe Bulkers (SB) would have banked, as the stock went from 3.36 a share a week ago to 3.66, an increase of 8.9%. StealthGas (GASS) was the only stock that dropped.

Congratulations on those that took the risk.

Hey Contrarians! Why Not Buy the Stocks of Greece?

Every day, you read about the bad news relating to  Greece, including its debt, the limits on cash withdrawals, the country running out of food, the difficulty in getting medicine, and on and on. Many Greek stocks have tanked due to this onslaught of news from the media.

But you may or may not already know that this is old news. I published an article back in 2010 about what Googlers (GOOG) where thinking about Greece (and gold). With all this bad news. investors tend to overreact, and when that happens, opportunities are created for stock snapbacks. Those willing to speculate may want to take a look at Greek stocks.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) has dropped from 1.79 to 1.13 so far this year. Revenues for the latest reported quarter dropped by over 31% and the company is currently generating a loss.

Greek shipping stocks may provide better opportunities. Costamare Inc. (CMRE), which has a fleet of 68 containerships, trades at 12.6 times trailing earnings and 9.9 times forward earnings. Earnings for the latest quarter were up a substantial 32.5% on a 5.2% rise in revenues. The stock sports a fat 6.1% yield. The stock has taken a dip of almost two dollars a share from where it was ten days ago.

StealthGas, Inc. (GASS), based in Athens, is a provider of seaborne transportation services to liquefied petroleum gas producers. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 24.5 and a forward PE of 7.7. Quarterly revenues increased by 5.3%, however, earnings fell 23.6%. No dividend on this stock.

Safe Bulkers (SB) is a provider of marine dry bulk transportation services. The stock pays a yield of 1.2%, but that may not last as the company is generating negative earnings and revenues went down by over 22% for the latest quarter.

Choppy seas may be ahead for these shipping stocks, so be aware of the risks. If you like interesting stock lists like this, get the lists of stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

For Contrarians: Top Stocks of Greece

In case you missed it, the National Bank of Greece (NBG) tanked by over 20% today, due to the election of socialist politicians and concern over the possibility that Greece may default on its debt. This news has pulled down many Greek stocks, primarily the shipping companies.

For the contains out there, you may want to consider some of the other Greek stocks. One example, Costamare Inc. (CMRE), which has a fleet of 67 containerships, trades at 13 times trailing earnings and 11 times forward earnings. Earnings for the latest quarter were up an incredible 77% on a 13.2% rise in revenues. To top it off the stock yields a juicy 6.7%.

StealthGas, Inc. (GASS) is a provider of seaborne transportation services to liquefied petroleum gas producers. The stock dropped over 3% today. However, the stock has a price to earnings ratio of 10 and a forward PE of 6. Quarterly revenues were up 5%, however, earnings dropped 62%. It does not pay a dividend.

Safe Bulkers (SB) is a provider of marine dry bulk transportation services. The stock has a 7.5 PE and a forward PE of 10. However, you should be aware that quarterly earnings were down 87%. The yield of 4.4%.

Before you climb aboard any of these shipping companies, analyze the risks. For other interesting stock lists like this, check out the lists of stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of August

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.

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.

Safe Bulkers, Inc. (SB) market cap: $511.1M ex div date: 8/22/2011 yield: 8.3%

Atkins plc (WATKF) ex div date: 8/24/2011 yield: 4.4%

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC) market cap: $18.1B ex div date: 8/25/2011 yield: 3.1%

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) market cap: $182.9B ex div date: 8/26/2011 yield: 3.4%

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.

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

High Yields and Smooth Sailing with Shipping Stocks

If you are an income investor and you are predicting a global recovery, for some diversification from electric and gas utility stocks, you might want to step on board some shipping stocks. There are two types of shippers, the liquid shippers which transport crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas, and the dry bulk shippers, which transport iron ore, coal, grain, minerals, fertilizers, and other non-liquid items.

The shipping stocks generate some fairly high dividends. Eighteen yield over 3.5%. For example, Teekay LNG Partners (TGP) is a liquid shipper that yields 9.2%. Horizon Lines, Inc. (HRZ) is a dry bulk shipper with an 8.2% yield. Another high yield dry bulk shipper is Safe Bulkers, Inc. (SB) paying 7.1%.

For a free Excel database of over 20 high dividend shipping stocks, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. A few of these stocks yield more than 10%, but I think those yields are probably unsustainable.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com