Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Shopping Online

My son wanted something on Amazon so I agreed to shop there. The last time I did that it was sent by a delivery service where because I was not home when they called I had to go to some out of the way place on the Lakeshore to get the package. This was a number of years ago and I had not shopped online in the meantime.

I did the order and it was sent by Purolator. I again was not home when the package was delivered and I got a notice that I had to pick the parcel up at 800 Kipling. According to Google the office was just south of the Kipling station. However, when I was at Kipling it was not easy finding an exit to the street. I asked 4 people before someone could tell me where there was an exit.

When I finally got to the Purolator office, I told the clerk that I was never shopping at Amazon again; she said that I could have phoned to reschedule a delivery. She said she did not know why the Purolator delivery man did not give me this info.

You hear a lot about Online Shopping being easy and how great it is. I still think that going to a shop for shopping is a lot easier. I am still not impressed with online shopping.

My son shops online and most things seem to be delivered by Canadian Post Office. However, we never seem to get a phone call when we are home and items have to be picked up at our Post Office. I pass two post office outlets each day, but our post office is in an inconvenient spot and my son always has to make a special trip to get his items. Just how is this convenient?

On my other blog I am today writing about Barclays PLC ADR (NYSE-BCS, LSE-BARC) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Little Book of Investment Knowledge

This blog entry at Daily Buy Sell Advisor gives you the first chapter of their Little Book of Investment Knowledge. You can get the rest by signing up for the Investment Reporter at $5.83 a month.

If you are new to investing or want some good investment ideas, the Investment Reporter is a good place to begin. They also give details of model portfolios in this investment letter.

On my other blog I am today writing about DH Corp (TSX-DH, OTC-DHIFF) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Goodwill and Intangible Assets

One thing I follow on my spreadsheets is relationship of Intangible Assets and Goodwill compared to the stock market cap. If the total of Intangible Assets and Goodwill is approaching or over 100% of the market capitalization of a stock the market could be tell you that investors are not valuing these special assets.

Often when Goodwill is at or over 100% of the market cap of a stock is a signal that a company may have to write-off part or all of the Goodwill on its books. This can occur also with Intangible Assets.

Intangible Assets are assets that are not physical in nature, but can provide a stream of revenue. Intangible Assets are such things as patents, trademarks, copyrights, business methodologies or brand recognition. Such things can be valuable for a firm. The concept of Tangible Assets are talked about on Investopedia.

Goodwill is a type of Intangible Asset. This asset occurs when one company buys another company and pays more than the fair market value of its net assets. Investopedia also has an entry on this subject here. Also the site Investing Answers gives examples of how Goodwill is handled in accounting.

I just like to keep an eye on these types of assets because if they get too high in relationship to a stock market capitalization, this can be pointing to a problem that the market does not think that they are as valuable as the company says on their balance sheet.

On my other blog I am today writing about Russel Metals Inc. (TSX-RUS, OTC-RUSMF) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Ben Bernanke's Blog

Ben Bernanke has started a blog at the Brookings Institute. You can get his blog here. Recently on his blog he discusses why interest rates are so low in a three part blog. You can read this here, here, and here.

On my other blog I am today writing about Toromont Industries Ltd. (TSX-TIH, OTC-TMTNF) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

What's Wrong with Finance

There is an interesting article by Morgan Housel at his blog call What's Wrong with Finance.

The number one problem he has is the extreme bias towards action which he puts down to the exploitative fee arrangement. I agree that there is a bias towards action and this is a big problem. I think I have made money because I bought good companies at reasonable prices and then just left them alone in my portfolio.

Yes, there were times I had to take action. A company maybe bought out or company gets into difficulties. The odd time I did have to sell companies because I thought that they were currently going nowhere and I did not see any change in the future. This did not happen often. But, mostly I bought companies and held on to them and made money.

Morgan Housel has 3 more problems he sees, but I think these have been mentioned before.

On my other blog I am today writing about Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX-SLF, NYSE-SLF) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Shorting Canada

This is a very interesting and very short video by Jared Dillian. He is shorting Canada because our Real Estate is comparatively very expensive, oil prices are down and Canadians are the most indebted people anywhere.

On my other blog I am today writing about BCE Inc. (TSX-BCE, NYSE-BCE) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Something to Buy April 2015

There is always something to buy in the stock market. On Monday, I put out a list of the stocks that I covered and showed what stock might be a good deal based on dividend yield. Now I am trying to categorize what sorts of stocks may be a good deal based on dividend yield.

The advantages to using dividend yield to judge how cheap or expensive a stock is, is that you are not using estimates or old data (like last reported quarter's data). You are using today's stock price and today's dividend yield.

For other testing, like using P/E Ratios and Price/Graham Price Ratios, you use EPS estimates or from the last reported financial quarter. When using P/S Ratios, P/CF Ratios or P/BV Ratios you are using data from the last reported financial quarter.

However, no system is perfect. But if you are interested in buy a stock a list of stocks cheap or reasonable using dividend yield data might be a good place to start.

Categorizing stocks is not as simple as it might seem. Every site you go to has categorized stocks a bit differently. I try to keep this as simple as possible. See my spreadsheet at here. As in other spreadsheets, you can highlight a line or a number of lines for better viewing.

Of the consumer discretionary stocks, Newfoundland Capital Corp (TSX-NCC.A) and Leon's Furniture (TSX-LNF) are showing as cheap by the historical average dividend yield.

Consumer discretionary stocks showing as cheap by the historical median and 5 year median dividend yields is Goodfellow Inc. (TSX-GDL) and Newfoundland Capital Corp (TSX-NCC.A). Also Leon's Furniture (TSX-LNF) is showing as cheap by the historical median dividend yield.

Some Consumer Staple stocks are showing as relatively cheap. Jean Coutu Group Inc. (TSX-PJC.A) and Loblaw Companies (TSX-L) are showing as cheap only by the historical median dividend yield. Rogers' Sugar (TSX-RSI) is cheap using the 5 year median dividend yield.

Of the US Health Care stocks I follow Johnson and Johnson (NYSE-JNJ) and Medtronic Inc. (NYSE-MDT) are both relatively cheap by the historical average and historical median dividend yields.

Of the Real Estate Stocks, Granite Real Estate (TSX-GRT.UN) and Melcor Developments Inc. (TSX-MRD) are showing relatively cheap by the historical average and the historical median dividend yields. Artis REIT (TSX-AX.UN) is shown as cheap by the historical median dividend yield. Allied Properties (TSX-AP.UN), Granite Real Estate (TSX-GRT.UN) and Melcor Developments Inc. (TSX-MRD) are showing as relatively cheap by the 5 year median dividend yield.

The Canadian banks of Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX-BNS) National Bank of Canada (TSX-NA), Royal Bank (TSX-RY) and Toronto Dominion Bank (TSX-TD) are showing as relatively cheap by the historical median and the 5 year median dividend yields. Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX-BNS) and Toronto Dominion Bank (TSX-TD) are also showing as cheap by the historical average dividend yield.

Of the Financial Services stocks, AGF Management (TSX-AGF), CI Financial (TSX-CIX), DirectCash Payments Inc. (TSX-DCI), Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. (TSX-GS), Home Capital Group (TSX-HCG), IGM Financial (TSX-IGM) and Power Corp (TSX-POW) are showing as relatively cheap by the historical median dividend yield. Of these, only CI Financial (TSX-CIX), Home Capital Group (TSX-HCG), IGM Financial (TSX-IGM) and Power Corp (TSX-POW) are showing as cheap by the historical average dividend yield.

Of the above Financial Services stocks DirectCash Payments Inc. (TSX-DCI), Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. (TSX-GS), and Home Capital Group (TSX-HCG) are showing as relatively cheap by the 5 year median dividend yield.

Of the Insurance group Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSX-GWO, Manulife Financial Corp (TSX-MFC), Power Financial Corp (TSX-PWF) and Sun Life Financial (TSX-SLF) are showing as relatively cheap by the historical median dividend yield. Power Financial Corp (TSX-PWF) is also showing as cheap by the historical average dividend yield.

Of the industrials, the stocks showing as cheap historically are Hammond Power Solutions Inc. (TSX-HPS), Pason Systems Inc. (TSX-PSI) and SNC-Lavalin (TSX-SNC). Canadian National Railway (TSX-CNR), Canyon Services Group (TSX-FRC), Finning International Inc. (TSX-FTT), McCoy Global Inc. (TSX-MCB), Mullen Group (TSX-MTL), PFB Corp (TSX-PFB), Russel Metals (TSX-RUS), Toromont Industries Ltd. (TSX-TIH) and Transcontinental Inc. (TSX-TCL) are showing as cheap by the historical median dividend yields.

Of the above stocks, only Finning International Inc. (TSX-FTT), Mullen Group (TSX-MTL), PFB Corp (TSX-PFB), Russel Metals (TSX-RUS), and Transcontinental Inc. (TSX-TCL) are showing as cheap by the historical average dividend yields. Also, Pulse Seismic Inc. (TSX-PSD) is showing as cheap by historical average, but not historical median dividend yield.

Of the industrials, also Exchange Income Corp (TSX-EIF) is the only one just showing as cheap by 5 year median dividend yield.

There are not many companies in the Tech sector, but Calian Technologies Ltd (TSX-CTY) and Evertz Technologies (TSX-ET) are showing as relatively cheap by the historical median dividend yield, by the historical average dividend yield and by the 5 year median dividend yield.

A number of energy stocks also seem cheap. Canadian Natural Resources (TSX-CNQ), Cenovus Energy Inc. (TSX-CVE), Ensign Energy Services (TSX-ESI) and Suncor Energy (TSX-SU) are still showing as relatively cheap historically.

Husky Energy (TSX-HSE) is showing as cheap by the historical median and the historical average dividend yields. Crescent Point Energy Corp (TXS-CPG) is showing as cheap by the historical median and the historical average dividend yields. Encana Corp (TSX-ECA) is only showing as cheap by the historical median dividend yield.

I have two materials stocks and both are showing up cheap. Teck Resources Ltd (TSX-TCK.B) is showing as relatively cheap historically. Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX-ABX) is showing as relatively cheap by the historical average and the historical median dividend yields.

Of the infrastructure type utility companies only Enbridge Inc. (TSX-ENB) is showing relatively cheap by the 5 year median. The utility companies TransAlta Corp (TSX-TA) is showing as relatively cheap by the historical average and the historical median dividend yields. ATCO Ltd (TSX-ACO.X) is showing relatively cheap by the historical median and 5 year median dividend yields. Canadian Utilities (TSX-CU) is showing as cheap by the 5 year median dividend yield.

Of the Telecom Stocks WiLan Inc. (TSX-WIN) is showing as relatively cheap historically. Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX-SJR.B) and Manitoba Telecom (TSX-MBT) are showing as relatively cheap by the historical average and the historical median dividend yields.

On my other blog I am today writing about AltaGas Ltd (TSX-ALA, OTC-ATGFF) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Dividend Stocks April 2015

The theory is that you should use the dividend yield to see if a dividend stock is selling at a stock price that is relatively cheap. A stock price is considered cheap if it is selling at a dividend yield higher than the historical high yield or higher than the historical average yield or historical median yield. See my spreadsheet at dividend growth stocks that I just updated for April 2015.

On this list,
  • I have 9 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical high dividend yield,
  • I have 35 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical average dividend yield
  • I have 53 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical median dividend yield and
  • 42 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the 5 year average dividend yield.
When I did my list last month,
  • I have 9 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical high dividend yield,
  • I have 35 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical average dividend yield
  • I have 54 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical median dividend yield and
  • 44 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the 5 year average dividend yield.
When I did my list in January 2014,
  • I had 9 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical high dividend yield,
  • I had 45 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the historical average dividend yield and
  • 39 stocks with a dividend yield higher than the 5 year average dividend yield.
Of the stock that I follow 9 stocks have raised their dividends since last month. Dividends raises are denoted in green. Of special interest is Power Financial, which is the second life insurer to raise dividends after a long while. They are:

Canadian Natural Resources (TSX-CNQ)
EnerCare Inc. (TSX-ECI)
Enghouse Systems Limited (TSX-ESL)
Keyera Corp (TSX-KEY)
Parkland Fuel Corp (TSX-PKI)

Power Financial Corp (TSX-PWF)
SNC-Lavalin (TSX-SNC)
Stella-Jones (TSX-SJ)
Transcontinental Inc. (TSX-TCL.A)

Of the stock that I follow 3 stocks have decreased their dividends since last month. Dividends decreased are denoted in red. They are:

Canexus Corporation (TSX-CUS)
Penn West Petroleum (TSX-PWT)
Wajax Corp (TSX-WJX)

Also Magna International Inc. (TSX-MG) did a stock split of 2 to 1.

I am showing whether a stock is relatively cheap based on historical high dividend yields (P/Hi), historical average dividend yields (P/Ave), historical median dividend yields (P/Med) or on 5 year median dividend yields (P/5Yr). See these fields on the right side of the file. You can highlight a particular stock using your cursor to highlight the appropriate line.

There are always some stocks to buy because they are priced reasonably. There are always stocks to currently avoid because they are overpriced. Looking at dividend growth stocks that are selling at stock prices that give them a dividend yield above the historical average dividend yield are probably the best bet.

The stocks that are selling at prices that give them a dividend yield above the historical high yield could be good stocks to buy. However, these stocks may be selling so cheap because of current troubles, especially financial troubles and should be treated with caution. Do not forget that I have all the stocks I follow on this spreadsheet and some are much better investments than others.

However, you should always investigate a stock before you buy. Sometimes different stocks in certain sectors are just out of favour or the stock market is just in one of its declines. However, a stock may be relatively cheap because it has problems. That is why you should always investigate a stock before buying.

Looking at stock this way is equivalent to a stock filter. A main problem I know of is for the old income trusts. These companies have generally lowered their dividend yields forever and they will probably never get back to the old dividend yield highs they made as an income trust company. For these stocks, you might be better comparing the current dividend yield to the 5 year median dividend yield.

Also, on some stocks I have a lot more information years in my spreadsheets than for other stocks. So, finding a stock on the list as "cheap"is only the first step in finding a stock to buy. This is the same with any other sort of stock filters that you can use.

The last thing to remember is that I have entering figures into a spreadsheet. I could put them in incorrectly, I can transpose figures and I can misread figures. This is another great reason why you should check a stock out before investing. As this is just a filter, it works better on some stocks than on others.

See my entry on my methodology in establishing the historical dividend yield highs and lows for the stocks that I cover. I have an entry on my introduction to Dividend Growth Stocks . You might want to look at my original entry on Dividend Growth Stocks. I have also written about why I like Dividend Growth companies.

On my other blog I am today writing about TransCanada Corp. (TSX-TRP, NYSE-TRP) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Doing the Same Thing

There is a saying that a sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. However, there is an exception when it comes to computers. You can do the same thing over and over again and then suddenly you get a different result.

I got a PVR from Rogers. I have been having trouble getting Shomi and on Rogers' site it says to reboot the PVR. I did this a number of times yesterday, but it never got past -01-. Of course without the PVR there is no TV either. On Rogers' site they basically say that the PVR is like a computer.

Having long worked with computers I decided to give this another try. This morning I rebooted the PVR and now it is working just fine. I have TV, I have Rogers' On Demand and I have Shomi. My experience with computers has been doing the same thing over and over again sometimes gets you what you want.

On my other blog I am today writing about TransAlta Corp. (TSX-TA, NSYE-TAC) ... continue...

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.