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So much for taking a week-long vacation, since it seems that when you plan to take a little time off, you pay a price trying to catch up upon returning and issuers of new preferred stock and baby bonds have made sure we have plenty to do. March thus far has been the busiest new issue month in the last…

By Paul Dykewicz Investors looking to buy shares in public companies that generally outperform the market should consider those that increase their dividend payments each year. Research shows public companies that adhere to a rising dividend policy have tended to reward their shareholders with superior returns, increased income payments and reduced volatility. Such rising dividend policies are an indicator that…

By Paul Dykewicz The lure of income is one of the key reasons to own a dividend-paying stock, in addition to the traditional benefit of the capital appreciation that is gained when the share-price rises. But an important byproduct of investing in dividend payers is that their share prices tend to fall less in down markets than those of high-flying…

By Paul Dykewicz A company’s dividend payout ratio indicates how much money is returned to shareholders rather than kept by a company to reinvest in growth, pay off debt or boost cash reserves. The payout ratio, first and foremost, helps to assess whether a company’s earnings can sustain the payment of a dividend. An investor wants to know that a…

Virtually all of the equity markets have bounced back strongly from the rocky 2016 start in January.  The S&P500 was off 10% by February 11th, when the markets bottomed and headed strongly higher. On February 3rd we wrote an article titled “Wild January Could Have Inflicted More Harm Than It Did” and in the article we mentioned that the wholesale…