Companies breaking into separate parts (ITT, FO), IPOs, M&A,
and increasing dividends are all part of the foundation that should
make for stable markets going forward. Pullbacks will certainly be
welcome and I am surely hoping for better entry points as investors
continue to trickle back into stocks.
I wanted to touch dividend payouts a bit more today. Depending
on your broker, you may be able to reinvest your cash dividends
back into shares of your holdings at no cost. Did you know that? We
have the portfolio generator tool on the site, along with the stock
screener where you can assemble a portfolio that will pay you out
monthly dividend checks from January thru December. TD Ameritrade
has a $10 minimum dividend check requirement to send one out. If
you do not have a TD Ameritrade account, you should inquire with
your broker on what their policy is, and ask them about any costs
to reinvest those dividends if you so choose. For those that are
older and looking for monthly dividend income, you should check
those tools out. The list from the portfolio generator is based on
stocks that are on our recommended list only. According to an
analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, there will be an
average of 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day. This trend is
set to last for the next 20 years. The strain on social security
will be intense. We have not seen social security increases the
last couple of years, so there will be a need for sources of new
income. I can't stress enough the importance for everyone to be
proactive, whether one is approaching retirement now or 30 years
from now. Compound interest is your biggest friend and dividend
stocks can get you results if you get going and start taking
action.
Speaking of action, we put three new names on our recommended
list today. Be sure to check out the
post
if you did not read the e-mail alert we sent out earlier. Looking
at the headlines, ITT Corp (
ITT
) rallied more than 16% on news the company will be splitting up
into 3 separate companies. If you remember, I mentioned that
investment bankers would likely be busy crunching numbers on more
break-up deals, following the news about Fortune Brands (
FO
) splitting itself up. Cliffs Natural Resources (
CLF
) was higher after the company announced a $4.9B acquisition last
night. Financials traded nicely higher, with JP Morgan (
JPM
) shares getting a decent pop after the CEO made comments about
increasing the banking giant's dividend payout later this year. On
the flipside, Arch Coal (
ACI
) pulled down some coal-related names after the company lowered its
profit guidance.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you tomorrow!
Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the
Best Dividend Stocks
, as well as a detailed explanation of
our ratings system here
.