rd80's Blog

Stocks v Bonds: DJIA Matchup

rd80 — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:40:15 GMT

Since there wasn't much interesting in the new issue bond market last week, I decided to see how the dividend yields on the DJIA thirty stacked up against the companies' own bond yields. Twenty-two of the thirty stocks have dividend yields that top 10-year treasury note...

The Return of a Dividend!

rd80 — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:48:34 GMT

After a nearly five-year absence, NN, Inc. (NNBR) - a small cap bearing and machinery manufacturer - has restored its dividend! Woo Hoo!

From the press release:

“The reinstatement of a quarterly cash divi...

A Buyback and Dividend, an Acquisition and Some Refis

rd80 — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:26:54 GMT

There wasn't a lot of activity in new corporate bond issues last week, but EMC and BAX each posted multi-billion dollar ussues.
Not sure if the below average dollar value of new deals is just randomness or if the creep up in rates is reducing borrowing de...

Last Week's Bonds

rd80 — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 09:13:37 GMT

There wasn't much excitement in last week's new bond issues. But, there were a couple examples of debt refinancing saving companies money.
Even though it didn't save the most, I thought Ingles Markets was the best example. By redeeming high-rate junk wi...

Value Priced Dividend Screen

rd80 — Wed, 29 May 2013 11:12:17 GMT

The latest issue of the T. Rowe Price Report includes an interview with David Giroux, manager of Price's Capital Appreciation Fund, who wraps up the article with some advice: "Focus on companies with 2% to 3% dividend yields that have high-quality business models and trade for no more than 15 t...

Last Week's Bonds and Apple's Bond Price

rd80 — Mon, 27 May 2013 16:25:13 GMT

Last week's new bond issues included one that's funding a capital expansion program and could even result in some job creation.
Other than funding some capex, other borrowers profiled were mostly refinancing debt or paying for aquisitions.
Two borrowers, Petrobras (PBR) and Merck (MRK) accounted for over 1/3 of last weeks' US$ corporate bond issues.
If I invested in individual bonds, I'd be watching for the PBR 10-year to get listed. Investment grade (barely) note with a 4.35% coupon. That'...

A Quick Junkyard Tour

rd80 — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:16:39 GMT

For the summary of last week's bond issues, I decided to focus on some of the high yield, aka junk, borrowers.
It's interesting to see how far yields have been bid down on less-than-stellar rated paper. Several of the borrowers sold ten-year paper with yields near 4%. ...

What are you buying or selling?

rd80 — Sat, 11 May 2013 21:52:01 GMT

Let's try an informal, unscientific survey to add some more investment commentary to CAPS. Here are a few questions and my answers, feel free to answer as many or as few as you like, or answer one I didn't ask.
1. What was your last investment buy or sell? Why?
Mine was a BDX buy last Wed adding a little ...

Apple Wasn't the Only Borrower Last Week

rd80 — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:40:33 GMT

Apple made news last week with the largest corporate bond offering in history, but it wasn't the only big borrower.
Want international? Chinese oil and gas company CNOOC borrowed US dollars through its British Virgin Islands finance subsidiary to fund the acquisition o...

BDX SWOT

rd80 — Sat, 04 May 2013 16:34:39 GMT

A quick strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats following Becton Dickinson's earning report last week.
BDX is a boring stock and I happen to like boring stocks. Slow growth, dividend goes up every year, there's always demand ...

Renewable Energy MLPs: Politics and Investing

rd80 — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:43:27 GMT

There's a piece in this weekend's Barron's (may require subscription) about the MLP Parity Act which would expand the qualifying operations for Master Limited Partnerships to include renewable energy projects.
The Barron's article h...

Back to Back Raises

rd80 — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:32:40 GMT

Yesterday it was WFC, today Chevron joins the 'give Russ a raise' party, bumping the quarterly by 11% to an even buck a share.
That'll make it just a little less painful next time I fill the car.
Fool on!

Banked a Raise Today

rd80 — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:55:23 GMT

Wells Fargo announced a raise in the quarterly dividend to 30 cents/share from 25. That's a 20% hike and is up 36% from a year ago. At today's closing price, the yield going forward is just a bit under 3-1/4%.
Disclosure: Long WFC and just added a few

WFC Earnings SWOT; plus bond non-summary

rd80 — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:58:34 GMT

Pulled some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from Wells Fargo's earnings report.
Declining net interest margin and lower home loan volume are areas of concern, but there are sevaral bright spots to offset the concerns.
Analysis: Euro zone bank troublespots don't come down to size
The Reuter's article linked above is a good rundown of some of the risks and non-risks from banks in the smaller eurozone countries.
During the Cyprus bank bailout/in, much wa...

Everyday Low Prices Does Not Apply to Bonds

rd80 — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:54:25 GMT

The big issuer in corporate bonds last week was Walmart (WMT). Four issues totalling five billion at some pretty low coupon rates (low rates = high prices in bonds). The company stands to save quite a bit of money on interest payments if the money gets used to redeem maturing paper.
...

Japan's Central Bank Fires Up the Printing Presses

rd80 — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 22:31:46 GMT

Early this morning, the Bank of Japan joined the world's easy money party in a big way. According to this Reuter's article,
"The BOJ's new plan means it will buy about 7 trillion yen ($73 b...

Last Weeks Bonds, with one to watch

rd80 — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:24:23 GMT

Here's a summary of last week's corporate bond issues.
The holiday week dampened traffic, there was only about $14 billion in new paper with over half that coming from outside the US.
Most of the traffic was refinancing. Privately held ...

Four New Highs

rd80 — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:51:12 GMT

Four stocks in my portfolio tagged along, or helped push, the S&P500 to new highs on Thursday.
I decided to celebrate by taking 52-week High-ku to a Fool article.
There's a little bit of commentary along with th...