Weekly Warren Buffett News for May 1

The latest news about Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B).


Buffett's cancer to be No. 1 topic at Berkshire meeting


Chance to Make Business Pitch to Buffett

 The Other Buffett Rules

Buffett and Companies Give $500K to 2012 Campaigns

Brooks Sports to roll out shoes with Warren Buffett's image

 Women and Warren Buffett do well in stock market

Five People Playing One Guitar at the Same Time

Although this video has nothing to do with investing, it was discovered by Michael Murphy at New World Investor. The Canadian indie band, Walk off the Earth, plays Somebody that I Used to Know. Five people playing one guitar.

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Second Week of May 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.


 

Sanofi SA (ADR)	SNY	$98.7B	5/7/2012	4.7%
Entergy Corporation	ETR	$11.6B	5/8/2012	5.1%
Pitney Bowes Inc.	PBI	$3.5B	5/9/2012	8.7%
Valley National Bancorp	VLY	$2.4B	5/9/2012	5.4%

Eli Lilly & Co.	LLY	$46.3B	5/11/2012	4.9%
Shaw Communications Inc.	SJR	$8.4B	5/11/2012	4.9%
Vectren Corporation	VVC	$2.4B	5/11/2012	4.9%
Consolidated Edison, Inc.	ED	$17.2B	5/14/2012	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

Natural Gas Stocks are a Gas Gas Gas

Natural gas has tanked 39% this year, the worst performer of all the commodities. Natural gas should increase to $4 per million BTU pretty soon, according to Goldman Sachs (GS). This is primarily due to production cutbacks from major producers and increased demand from utilities this year. It is significant since gas dropped 39% this year, the worst performing of all utilities.

There are many publicly traded companies involved in the distribution of natural gas, to both homes and businesses, and over 15 over them have yields in excess of 3%. For example, TransCanada Corp. (TRP), based in Calgery, Alberta, Canada, owns and operates natural gas pipelines and regulated gas storage facilities throughout Northern California. The company, which trades at 20 times earnings, pays a generous yield of 4.0%. (Talk to your accountant about foreign withholding tax, especially when foreign stocks are put in a retirement plan.) Earnings for the latest quarter were up 37.5% on a 14.7% rise in revenues.

Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) is another high yielder gas company, which yields 4.9%. The stock trades at 21.6 times earnings, and earnings for the latest reported quarter ending December 31, were up an amazing 351.3% year over year, on a revenue increase of 20.9%. The company reports earning on May 2.

More options are available and worth further research including Northwest Natural Gas (NWN) at a 3.9% yield, WGL Holdings Inc (WGL) paying 4.0%, and Sempra Energy (SRE) at 3.7%. You can access a free list of over 25 natural gas companies, along with their price to earnings data, at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

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

By Stockerblog.com