Welcome to
"StockBreakthroughs Newsletter"
March 10, 2005.
In this issue...
Dividends.
By definition, a dividend is a portion of a company's profit paid to common and preferred shareholders.
Many investors choose stocks of companies that pay dividends. But just because a company pays dividends doesn't automatically mean that the company is good, strong and solid and worth investing in. Here also, attention should be focused on quality!
Here are 6 quality stocks that are top of the range at this point in time when it comes
to paying out dividends:
Altria (formerly Philip Morris):
With a dividend of over 4% annually, Altria is one of the top dividend paying corporations around. The tobacco and food company paid out more than half its profits of $9 billion to its shareholders last year. And the even better news is, that Altria raises its dividends on an almost regular basis. On average in the last 15 years, stockholders received round about 10% more dividends each year.
Solid companies with a great outlook that manage to increase turnover and profits regularly raise their dividends almost every year. In contrast to many other companies the dividend policy of these corporations is very reliable. They don't pay out a high dividend just because their profits are high this year, and next year, when profits may have decreased, they don't pay any dividends at all.
So looking back in history can tell a lot about the future.
Altria, for instance, has raised their dividends regularly in the past 30 years.
Another master of dividends is...
Colgate-Palmolive:
The king of toothpaste has raised dividends for 41 years in succession. Since 1996, Colgate managed to even double their dividends altogether.
Procter & Gamble:
P&G puts the cherry on top of the cake. Dividends have been raised for 50 years in succession. Starting off with one cent back in 1955, dividend payments reached $1 per share in 2004.
But not only a long-term track record in dividend pay-outs is important. Also the amount by which dividends are being raised is decisive.
Citigroup:
The largest bank in the world increased their dividends by over 30% per year since 1991.
This is a double every 2,5 years.
Two other companies that pay out good dividends regularly are...
Total and ING
In A Nutshell:
Altria (USA),...........................4,3% per year.
ING (Netherlands),................4,1% per year.
Total (France),........................3,9% per year.
Citigroup (USA),....................3,4% per year.
P&G (USA),.............................1,9% per year.
Colgate-Palmolive (USA),....1,8% per year.
Yours in Successful Trading,
Ricky Schmidt
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