Investing is a Marathon

Investing is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Sure I have heard of investors hitting the big time but that is more like winning the lottery. Most people do not win the lottery. Investing is a marathon as you must give compounding time to work its magic for you.

You need to buy dividend stocks that raise their dividends over time. You have to ensure that your company can afford its dividends. The last thing is that you do not overpay for your company.

One site you can use to check if dividends are increasing is Morningstar. Go to Performance Tab and then to Dividends and Splits. For example in this link you can see dividend payments for Manulife Financial on Morningstar.

Next is to see that EPS cover the dividends. Continuing with Manulife Financial, the last screen showed total dividends of 0.52, 057, 0.665, 0.74 and 0.82 for years 2013 to 2017. On this next screen, Morningstar shows Diluted EPS of $1.62, 1.80, 1.05, 1.41, and 0.98 for years 2013 to 2017. From this you can see the company is covering its dividends.

It is often important to look at more than one year. If a company cannot in one year, that is not especially important unless it is a pattern. Companies can have a low earning year or a loss and it is no big deal. However, look to see how dividends have been covered over the past 5 years. This is much more important. They need to be able to cover dividends over a period of time.

The last thing about not paying too much may be more complex. In my reports I look a stock pricing from a number of ratios. You can compare current data with the historical or 10 year median ratios I give in my report. The ones I give will mostly not change over the course of a year. If you use Reuters and the Financial Tab, you will things like P/S Ratio, P/B Ratios and dividend yields. The only thing not available online is P/GP Ratios.

The thing to never rely on to judge when to buy a stock is analyst's recommendations. They just do not seem to time things right. It is not just that they never issue or seldom issue selling recommendations. They tend to issue Hold recommendations when a stock has fallen and it is time to buy, or issue a Buy when a stock has taken off and the price is currently too high.

If you want information on what to buy when you are looking for a financial planner or investment newsletter. I have never dealt with a financial planner so I do not know anything about getting one. The only newsletter that I feel I can recommend is The Investment Reporter by MPL Communications. Their Money Letter is also good if you want fixed income. The Investment Reporter will offer very concrete and solid advice on investing for Canadians. They take a long term investment view. You can often get a deal to try out the newsletter. Too many newsletters take far too short of view on stocks that they recommend.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about ARC Resources Ltd. (TSX-ARX, OTC-AETUF)... learn more. Next, I will write about Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX-MFC, NYSE-MFC)... learn more on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 around 5 pm.

Also, on my book blog I have put a review of the book The Intimate Bond by Brian Fagan learn more...

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. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter. I am on Instagram. Or you can just Google #walktoronto spbrunner8166 to see my pictures.