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Financial Stocks For Dividend Investors: AFL, CB

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:17:00 GMT

Financial stocks, which used to be great dividend investments, have had their share of troubles over the past two years. The sector has rebounded sharply since hitting its lows in March. Since the major dividend growth stories of the past such as Bank of America (BAC) and US Bancorp (USB) have cut dividends, most dividend growth investors seem to have a very low allocation to the sector. As a result dividend investors could suffer inferior risk adjusted returns in the future since they won't own any financial stocks.[More...]

Four Ways To Immunize Your Cash Against The Ravages Of Inflation

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:13:00 GMT

Right now, there’s more than $9.5 trillion in cash on the sidelines - or more than twice the amount of money currently invested in stock mutual funds, according to MoneyNet.inc and the U.S. Federal Reserve. Private equity firms alone are believed to hold[More...]

Best International Dividend Stocks

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:13:00 GMT

In a previous article I provided a list with the best dividend stocks for the long run. Since the list included only US stocks several readers asked for a similar list with international dividend growth stocks instead. Furthermore, I am also looking to expand my portfolio to include at least some allocation to [More...]

Canadian Banks Look Frothy

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:01:28 GMT

Canada has recently been lavished with praise because of the strength of their financial institutions amid all of the global financial turmoil. Despite this halo effect, these banks have had their challenges. Royal Bank of Canada (RY) just took a large write down on their US assets. That may be a bell weather for other institutions such as Toronto Dominion (TD) and Bank of Montreal BMO), who also have large assets in the US. I can’t help but thinking that Canadian banks are not looking attractive right now as investments whatsoever. With headwinds of further write-downs, low consumer confidence, increasing unemployment, increasing loan losses, and Canadian real estate value declines, the big 5 Canadian lenders share prices look downright frothy. This is quite a change from a few months ago when you could have bought some of the banks at decade lows and towering yields. Let’s look at Royal Bank of[More...]

Value Update II, 2009

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:35:00 GMT

The first quarter of 2009 has finished and although equity markets are up from their lows the economic landscape hasn’t changed dramatically for investors or businesses. Unemployment continues to rise, the cost of capital has remained relatively high and transparency in corporate earnings has been inadequate at best. Companies will begin reporting their numbers soon, but with GDP contracting by a significant amount in the past two quarters investors are going to be looking for stability rather than erosion or growth in earnings. Companies with strong defensive balance sheets and cashflows have weathered the storm well so far. Companies suffering from an abundance of debt and poor management have moved in the predictable direction of continued deterioration. After nearly every stock suffering through the decline in equity markets this is an environment of corporate survival. We are in an environment where corporate fundamentals will reign and the strong[More...]

When The Going Gets Tough, Bank On Canada’s Banks

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:53:00 GMT

Money Morning Staff Reports When Air Force One carried U.S. President Barack Obama on his first official visit abroad last month, the 44th president observed tradition and headed north. His... Money Morning is here to help investors profit handsomely on this seismic shift in the global economy. Money moves markets. But Money Morning lets you move first. [More...]

Canadian Banks: An Oasis of Financial Calm

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:26:00 GMT

Canadian Banks: An Oasis of Financial Calm by Dr. Mark Skousen, Advisory Panelist The U.S. financial system is a mess - according to the World Economic Forum, the United States ranks 40th among banking systems around the world. Without federal bailouts, the two largest banks in the country, Citibank (NYSE: C) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), would be in bankruptcy, and the good ol’ USA would be headed for the Greater Depression, as my[More...]

Competition for Capital

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:18:00 GMT

I’m not the brightest investor on the street, but I know enough that something isn’t quite right when I’ve fielded two dozen questions in recent days about the investing prospects of the Bank of Montreal (BMO) from peers who are intently focused on the stunning 9%+ dividend yield of its common shares. I first want to lay out in this post the cost of capital that banks have currently experienced when going to the market for equity to shore up their balance sheets. For investors who might be asking, “What’s this tier 1 capital ratio everyone is talking about?” it’s a basic measure of a banks overall financial strength and health. This ratio measures a bank’s core equity capital to its risk-weighted assets. Risk-weighted assets are a group of assets held by the bank that are weighted for credit risk using a formula provided by industry regulators. Essentially – what reserves does a bank have on hand to cover losses on any[More...]

Uh-Oh, Canada

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:52:00 GMT

Canada is a commodity-based economy. The country has seen good times and bad times in this past year thanks to volatile crude oil prices. iShares MSCI Canada Index (ETF) (NYSE:EWC) and Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) were both on the losers list on December 2. iShares MSCI Canada (EWC) [More...]

Bank Of Montreal – Is The Dividend Safe?

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:59:00 GMT

On November 25th Bank of Montreal (TSE: BMO) reported their Q4 results and the numbers weren’t all that bad, on the surface anyway. They reported EPS of $1.18, slightly ahead of analyst expectations and ahead of last year’s earnings. Revenue was also ahead of expectations, the tier 1 capital ratio was a solid 9.77% and there was no sign of a big write-down. So, low and behold, everything looks pretty good… could this possibly be the bottom? Well, not so fast. First of all, BMO’s positive earnings surprise was driven primarily by one-time items that are likely not sustainable. One-time items included: a very low effective income tax rate for the quarter, gains in trading revenue, and a higher than normal net interest margin. In addition, BMO avoided taking a $123 million loss to its bottom line because of a recent[More...]

Canada should fight deficit by hiking GST, cutting spending, says DBRS

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:49:00 GMT

MONTREAL - Canada should tackle its growing debt and the threat of chronic structural deficits by increasing the GST, perhaps to nine per cent, and cutting program spending, the co-president of the DBRS rating service said Wednesday.
The Conservative government reduced the Goods and Services Tax to five per cent from seven per cent a few years ago.
"It shouldn't have gone down two per cent, it should go back up, and maybe two percentage points higher," he said after presenting DBRS' views on Canada's economic position following the global financial crisis.

: iStockAnalyst.com Symbols Feed

Financial Stocks For Dividend Investors: AFL, CB

Four Ways To Immunize Your Cash Against The Ravages Of Inflation

Best International Dividend Stocks

Canadian Banks Look Frothy

Value Update II, 2009

When The Going Gets Tough, Bank On Canada’s Banks

Canadian Banks: An Oasis of Financial Calm

Competition for Capital

Uh-Oh, Canada

Bank Of Montreal – Is The Dividend Safe?

Canada should fight deficit by hiking GST, cutting spending, says DBRS

Canadians take shine to U.S. Black Friday

Home prices up -- but for how long?

BMO Financial Group Reports Strong Fourth Quarter Results

East West expands its reach

What recovery? Canada drops 43,200 jobs as unemployment rate hits 8.6 per cent

The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Mark Basch Column

Winn-Dixie Posts Quarterly Loss of $8 Million As Consumers Slow Spending: ?We Were Challenged By the Economy,? President and CEO Peter Lynch Said.

Mounting Deficits Raise Urgency for Governments to Switch From Spenders to Savers

Chicago Tribune Greg Burns Column: Exchanges Hunker Down Amid Uncertainty

PicksThatMove.com Announces Investment Opinion on Nexmed Inc., Bank of Montreal, Temex Resources Corp., CIBC, Mirasol Resources Ltd. and China Health Resources Inc.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation Announces Closing of $150 Million Senior Revolving Credit Facility

Latin American Minerals Inc. Announces Addition of Richard Boulay to the Board of Directors

Magnum Hunter Resources Announces Operational and Financial Results for Third Quarter 2009

SunOpta Announces New Credit Facility

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. Announces New $150 Million Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility

Green Swan Capital Corp. Announces Termination of Qualifying Transaction With SportsClick Inc.

BMO CEO Bill Downe to Speak at Scotia Capital Financials Summit 2009 Conference

Fifth Street Finance Corp. Receives Long Term Financing Commitment From Wachovia Bank, N.A.