Why You Should Consider Investing in Singapore Stocks

Back in 2010 (it's hard to believe that was five years ago), I wrote about the country of Singapore  and the top Singapore stocks. Since then, Singapore has made some major improvements.

 For example, five years ago, it was the 18th wealthiest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita on a purchasing power parity basis. Now it is in third place. As for the Human Development Index, it was ranked 25th place; now it is number nine. In addition, the country now has has the world's highest percentage of millionaires. Plus, multinational companies in Australia and other countries now move money through financial hubs in Singapore than at any time in history.

What all this means is that maybe investors should take a closer look at Singapore stocks. For example, Avago Technologies (AVGO) designs and markets semiconductor devices concentrating on analog III-V based products. The stock has a very high trailing price to earnings ratio at 107, but a very favorable P/E at 13. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 115.4%, however earnings dropped by 21.5%. The company pays a yield of 1.4%.

Don't let the name fool you but China Yuchai International (CYD) is actually a Singapore company. It has China in its name because the company makes and markets diesel and natural gas engines primarily in the People’s Republic of China. The stock trades at six times earnings and pays a fat 6.6% yield.

Flextronics International (FLEX) is another Singapore company which provides design, manufacturing, and supply chain services to original equipment manufacturers. It trades at 14 times trailing and 10 times forward earnings. It does not pay a dividend.

However, the best way to invest in Singapore may be to just invest in the iShares MSCI Singapore Index (EWS) ETF. If you like stock lists of different countries list this list, you can access many free country stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, such as Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and the UK.

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

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of February

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends,' also commonly referred to as 'Dividend Capture.' 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, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets.

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 in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.

Schlumberger Ltd.	SLB	2/9/2015	2.4%
Valero Energy Corporation	VLO	2/9/2015	3.1%
Alliance Holdings Group MLP	AHGP	2/10/2015	6.2%
Amgen	AMGN	2/10/2015	2.0%
Arts Way Manufacturing Co	ARTW	2/10/2015	2.1%

Mine Safety Applications	MSA	2/10/2015	2.8%
Pitney Bowes Inc	PBI-A	2/10/2015	5.2%
S&T Bancorp	STBA	2/10/2015	2.6%
A. H. Belo Corporation	AHC	2/11/2015	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 some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com. Most of the lists are free. 
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 at 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.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Expanded

Book now available: Stock Market Trivia Makes a Great Gift!

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 of Super Bowl Advertisers

If you watched the Super Bowl yesterday, you would have noticed that the commercials took up almost as much time as the game. Many of the advertisers were produced by publicly traded companies.

Here is a selection of most of the major advertisers.

Budweiser	Anheuser-Busch InBev	BUD
Camry	Toyota	TM
Carnival	Carnival	CCL
Chevrolet	General Motors	GM
Coca Cola	Coca Cola	KO
Discover	Discover Financial	DFS
Disney	Disney	DIS
Dorritos	Pesico	PEP
Dove Men+	Unilever	UN
esurance	Allstate	ALL
Fiat	Fiat Chrysler	FCAY
Furious 7	Comcast	CMCSA
Intuit Turbotax	Intuit	INTU
Lexus	Toyota	TM
McDonald's	McDonald's	MCD
Microsoft	Microsoft	MSFT
Nissan	Nissan	NSANY
Pepsi	PepsiCo	PEP
Sketchers	Sketchers	SKX
T-Mobile	Deutsche Telekom	DTEGY
Tamiflu	Roche	RHHBY
Terminator	Viacom	VIA
Toyota	Toyota	TM
Weight Watchers	Weight Watchers	WTW
Xfinity	Comcast	CMCSA

Super Bowl is a registered trademark.

Two New Stocks Warren Buffett Likes

Although the net worth of Warren Buffett keeps bouncing around, he still remains one of the top three richest people in the world. And the interesting thing is, he made his wealth through investing. With an outstanding record like that, many investors like to follow in Warren Buffett's footsteps, buying what he is buying.

Buffett uses his publicly traded company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B) as his invent holding company. Although the company's report on its latest holdings as of year end should be out in a couple weeks, investors can still look at what Buffet purchased in the third quarter of last year.

Buffett made two new purchases. The first one is Liberty Media (LMCK), the Colorado based television, radio, and entertainment company. The stock trades at 18 times trailing earnings, and reported a 6.7% rise in revenues but a 56.6% drop in earnings for the third quarter. The stock, which trades around 32 per share, is selling for significantly less than book value of 40.88.

The other Buffett purchase was ExpressScripts(ESRX), a provider of pharmacy benefit management services, trades at 32 times trailing earnings and 15 times forward earnings. The latest reported quarterly earnings were up 36.5% on flat revenues. The company reports year end earnings on February 23.

To see a list of Warren Buffett stocks, check out the free list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. By the way, if you want to know if Buffett dumped any stocks, the answer is yes. He unloaded all his Deere & Co. (DE) stock.

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

By Stockerblog.com