Huge Dividend Increases are a Sign of an Economic Turnaround

What better indication of a company's health than an increase in dividend. And if lots of companies raise their dividend across various sectors, it is a positive sign for the economy. If you own a high yield stock for the long term for its income, and the stock increases its dividend, then you really don't have to care about the day to day or week to week fluctuations in the stock price.

So what companies are providing these pleasant surprises to their shareholders? Target (TGT) bumped up its dividend by 20%, an increase of 5 cents to 30 cents a share per quarter. Target sports a yield of 2.6% and trades at 10.4 times forward earnings.

Caterpillar (CAT) boosted its quarterly cash dividend by two cents to forty-six cents per share. The stock has a dividend payout rate of 1.9% and a forward price to earnings ratio of 10.7.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) is increasing its quarterly dividend by 17% to 8.75 cents a share. The company trades at 8.9 times forward earnings and yields 1%.

Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM) announced announced a 33% increase in its quarterly cash dividend. Iron Mountain yields 2.4% and trades at 21.6 times forward earnings.

Stage Stores, Inc. (SSI) announced a 20% increase in the its quarterly dividend rate to 9 cents per share from the previous quarterly rate of 7.5 cents per share. The stock has a forward PE of 10.4 and a yield of 2.1%.

CR Bard Inc. (BCR) also recently announced a dividend increase. The stock yields 0.7% and has a forward PE of 15.4.

Even FedEx (FDX) boosted its dividend. The stock trades at 13.2 times forward earnings and yields 0.6%.

With all these dividend increases, an economic turnaround must be on the horizon. If you like high yield stocks, you should check out some of the downloadable high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns FDX.

By Stockerblog.com

Bloom Box (Bloom Energy) IPO?

Bloom Energy is the Sunnyvale, California manufacturer of solid oxide fuel cells that was featured on 60 minutes last month. Reportedly, the company's small fuel cells are as efficient as and as much as doubly efficient as a conventional power plant.

Questions have been coming in to me about investing in the Bloom Box, or more technically, How do I invest in Bloom Energy, When is the Bloom Energy IPO, What is the Bloom Energy stock symbol, What is the Bloom Box stock ticker. I have seen several supposed Bloom web sites which appear to be unauthorized sites, and maybe even worse, talking about the upcoming IPO of Bloom Energy or the initial public offering of the Bloom Box company. One site had a posting about a month ago that said that Bloom Energy was going public in two days. It hasn't gone public and hasn't even filed an IPO with the SEC to go public.

But investors still want in on the action. Investing in the company's customers would be futile from a fuel cell standpoint, as the effect on the bottom line would be negligible. Bloom's major customers include Google (GOOG), Coca-Cola (KO), eBay (EBAY), FedEx (FDX), Staples (SPLS), and Wal-Mart (WMT).

Investors could also look at Bloom's competitors that are involved in the development and manufacture of fuel cells, such as Ballard Power Systems (BLDP), United Technologies (UTX), Plug Power (PLUG), Westinghouse Electric division of Siemens (SI), and General Electric (GE).

Last but not least, you can take a look at the companies that Bloom does business with. The most significant example is Modine Manufacturing Company (MOD), a manufacturer of thermal management products. Modine, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, has a forward price to earnings ratio of 90. Bloom Energy licensed Modine's thermal management technology for an up-front fee of $12.0 million last year. In addition, Modine provided transition services to Bloom Energy, including the sale of products, for an additional fee. Modine is currently selling for less than $12 per share.

If you like fuel cell stocks and other green companies, you should check out the lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.



Author owns EBAY, FDX, and SI.

By Stockerblog.com

Fuel Cell Bloom Box

If you watched 60 minutes on Sunday, you would have seen the report on the Bloom Box, a fuel cell powered device that generates 'electricity in a box' wirelessly. It was invented by Bloom Energy, based in California. The device is already being tested by eBay (EBAY), Google (GOOG), FedEx (FDX) and WalMart (WMT).

Bloom Energy is privately held and has been funded by various venture capitalists, including Kleiner Perkins.