Dividend Growth Stocks Of The Recent Week

8 Top Picks With Buy Ratings Seen Out Of Merrill Lynch

The year-end prices are actually Merrill Lynch reference prices here rather than actual formal year-end prints on the NYSE or other exchanges. These are 8 top picks with Buy ratings seen out of Merrill Lynch as a kick-off to 2016.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) closed out 2016 at $72.97, and Merrill Lynch has a price objective of $82.00. If you consider the 2.7% dividend yield, Merrill Lynch is calling for Texas Instruments to generate a return of 15%. What investors might want to consider is that the consensus analyst target price is $74.89, very close to the current price, but Merrill Lynch’s price objective is exactly $10 less than the most aggressive price target on Wall Street. Texas Instruments has a 52-week range of $46.73 to $75.25. RBC was also positive here on Texas Instruments and other large caps.

Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) is another top pick from Merrill Lynch, with the firm’s $122.00 price objective being higher than the $108.82 most recent price. Norfolk Southern’s consensus analyst price target of $105.19 is actually lower than the current share price. That makes Merrill Lynch much more positive than the street even if they are just calling for 13% upside. Norfolk Southern has a 52-week range of $64.51 to $111.43.

Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) was last at $62.90, and Merrill Lynch’s price objective was last seen at $80.00. Hess has a 52-week range of $32.41 to $65.56 and its consensus analyst price target is just at $64.75. What matters here is that Merrill Lynch actually has the highest seen street price target of major analysts.

General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) was last trading at $173.21 versus a Merrill Lynch price objective of $200.00 for the company. That implies a gain of 15% if Merrill Lynch is right, and then there is the 1.8% dividend yield to consider for total return investors. General Dynamics has a consensus analyst target price of $186.06 and a 52-week range of $121.61 to $180.09.

Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) closed out the year at $124.45, and the firm has a $149 price objective. Aetna has a consensus analyst target of $138.93 and has a 52-week range of $92.42 to $136.50. That is still down 10% from a peak, and it remains unknown if the Trump administration will be more tolerant of insurance mergers versus that Obama administration.

Dover Corp. (NYSE: DOV) was at $75.19 at the end of 2016 and the firm has a $85.00 price objective. This is 13% in implied upside for Dover, before considering its 2.3% dividend yield.

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) is also a top pick for the first quarter, and Merrill Lynch’s price objective of $33.00 was versus a recent price of $28.50. The consensus analyst target price is a tad higher at $33.86.

SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) has a Buy rating at the firm, and this top pick among the bank stocks has a price objective of $190 versus a current $170.38 close. The parent of Silicon Valley Bank has a consensus analyst price target of $176.19, and its 52-week range is $77.87 to $176.77.

14 Attractively Valued Healthcare Sector Dividend Growth Stocks

Healthcare stocks have generally been poor performers in calendar year 2016. I suggest that this weak performance, especially relative to high-quality, fundamentally sound healthcare stocks, can be somewhat attributable to political uncertainty regarding the future of healthcare.

On the other hand, political uncertainty manifesting in 2016 could also be looked at as the catalyst that is bringing healthcare stocks that were overvalued in 2015 down to fundamentally justified levels.

Below are 14 examples that I consider worthy of current consideration and a more comprehensive research and due diligence effort.

These 14 dividend growth healthcare stocks are currently trading at very attractive fundamental valuations. As a result, they all reflect high earnings and cash flow yields. 

This implies that their valuations are attractive relative to their fundamental values. The following portfolio review lists them in order of highest current dividend yield to lowest.

Each of the results has a low forward P/E under 15 with solid earnings growth perspectives.

Here are the results...

20 Cheapest Large Cap Healthcare Dividend Stocks

The stock market offers opportunities every day, but healthcare is easily the sector benefiting most from the trend of aging demographics in the U.S. and throughout the developed world. 

This helps explain how over the past decade, the Global Healthcare Sector has outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 by more than 20%.

Looking for cheap stocks that pay dividends? These healthcare leaders are riding the aging demographic trends to profit town and deserve your attention.

The first thing that comes to mind, when determining whether a stock is overvalued or not, is its price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple. We hereby shortlist healthcare stocks with forward P/E ratio trading below 15x. Standard criterion holds that, anything under 15x will be dirt cheap.

Because of the high market valuation, we can say today that high-quality dividend stocks with a P/E under 20 are cheap, compared to bond yields.

Attached you will get a list of the cheapest healthcare dividend stocks by forward P/E. I've excluded all stocks with a market capitalization under 2 billion. Each of the results has a forward P/E under 15 which corresponds with an earnings yield over 6.6%.

These are the 20 cheapest healthcare dividend stocks....

19 Dividend Growth Stocks With Potential To Double Payouts

Dividend stocks can be the foundation of a great retirement portfolio. Not only do the payments put money in your pocket, which can help hedge against any dips in the stock market, they're usually a sign of a financially sound company.

Dividends also give investors a painless opportunity to reinvest in a stock, thus compounding gains over time. 

 However, not all income stocks live up to their full potential. They give only a small part of their cash potential back to shareholder. This might have different reasons like growth opportunities, debt payback and many more.

Today I like to introduce a few dividend growth stocks with very low dividend payout ratios, low price multiples and small debt burden as well. Each of the stock has a potential to grow earnings for the next years.

Attached you will find 19 of stocks with payout ratios currently below 30% that could potentially double their dividends.

These are the results...

12 Undervalued Dividend Growth Stocks Warren Buffett Could Add To His 356 Billion Empire

Warren Buffett built his $60 billion-plus fortune by buying high-quality businesses at discounts - that's a fact. 

The Oracle of Omaha summed up his love for bargains with this quote: "Whether we're talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down."

Today I will look at several dividend-paying businesses that are industry leaders with strong competitive advantages.

My main criteria are focussed on low price multiples like forward P/E and Free Cashflow P/E. In addition each of the stocks should have an estimated earnings outlook for the next five years of more than 5% yearly.

The market has unfairly punished all of these businesses. You can take advantage of current discounts by loading up on these high-quality businesses trading at bargain prices.

Here are the results...

A Portfolio Of Stocks With A High Domestic Sales Share

A Portfolio Of Stocks With A High Domestic Sales Share (click to enlarge),
Source: Goldman Sach, MarketWatch

7 Stocks With Reliable Dividends For Long-Term Retirement Investors

Dividend investing, or choosing stocks with a reliable cash payout, is a proven strategy. 

In the stock market, there are two paths to return on investment: capital appreciation and dividends.

Of the two paths, the only one with any reliability is the cash dividend.

Investors seeking a reliable rate of return can look to blue-chip dividend-paying stocks with confidence. The cash dividend is a company policy.

It must be voted on, declared and authorized by the board of directors, who arguably know the current condition of the company better than anyone else, as well as the prospects for the future. The cash dividend has a record date, an ex-date and a pay date.

Reliable dividends are more important for retirees, income growth investors who like to retire earlier and don't want to look each quarter at the results of the cyclic company while fearing a dividend cut.

Attached I've tried to compile a few dividend stock ideas, large caps with a solid dividend growth history, that may offer a big margin of safety for anxious investors.

Here are the results...

15 Cheap Stocks With Strong Growth Prospects

Dividend stocks as a group have started to trade in a range as investors contemplate the effect that the upcoming interest rate hike will have on their valuation.

From our perspective, the decision on whether dividend stocks are a good hold in a rising-interest-rate environment is a moot point — as long as we’re looking for the right stocks.

The “right” dividend stocks in our book not only pay healthy dividends, but also have strong growth prospects. Focusing on strong balance sheets and growing revenue helps to avoid investing in companies that may be at risk of decreasing or cutting their dividends.

Attached you can find a few dividend stocks with double-digit earnings growth predictions for the next five years.

Each of the stocks has a market cap over 2 billion, a debt to equity ratio under 0.5 and a beta below the market average.

15 stocks fulfilled our criteria of which two are High-Yields. 13 of the results got a buy or better rating by analysts.

Here are the top results...

11 Dividend Growth Opportunities For November 2015

Investing in stocks that pay dividends can be agreat way to build wealth over time, as companies that regularly dish out cash payments to their investors tend to outperform the market over the long-term.

However, investors can't just pick any dividend paying company and expect to do well, as many other factors like the companies growth prospects balance sheet, and valuation also need to be factored in to the equation.

Attached you will find my best picks for November 2015.

Check out my research results here:

Ex-Dividend Dogs For The Next Week And Dividend Growers Of The Past Week

Below is an overview of the Ex-Dividend Dogs for the next week. Those stocks go ex-dividend and have a low forward P/E of less than 15.

10 companies are on the list of the cheapest Ex-Dividend stocks while 73 go ex-dividend. A full stock list of dividend stocks (common shares, preferred shares and American Depositary Receipts – ADR’s), paying forthcoming dividends and having their ex-dividend within the week October 12, 2015 – October 18, 2015 can be found linked. The average dividend-yield amounts to 5.18 percent.

SJR, ABBV, THO and AET are my personal favorites. Which stocks do you like from the list?

Ex-Dividend Dogs of the next week...

Ex-Dividend Dogs For The Next Week (click to enlarge)

Dividend Growth Stocks of the past week...

Below, you can find the latest dividend growth stocks of the past week. Ony 15 companies raised their dividend output.

Goodyear, Plains All American Pipeline, RPM, YumBrands are the most establised names.

15 Dividend Growth Stocks Of The Past Week - October 05 - 11, 2015

The Best National Dividend Growth Stock Portfolio

The latest rise of the dollar index makes it hard to gain extra money from abroad. Companies like Procter&Gamble, Coca Cola, or Oracle suffer under the strong dollar and makes the company less competitive.

In current times, investors looking for stocks with a high shares of national revenues in their income statements.

If you are a domestic investor, you should look at the following list from Goldman Sachs which shows athe best stocks with the highest national sales in each sector.

There are some sectors with a huge amount of 100 domestic players. Financials, Consumer Discretionary, Energy, Healthcare, ... but Techology is a very international business.

These are the top picks from each sector in detail....

10 Cheaply Valuated Stocks Boosting Earnings For The Next Years

Companies delivering superior growth in sales and earnings tend to be winning names over the long term. However, these companies rarely sell for low valuations, so you generally need to pay premium prices for top-growth stocks. With this in mind, it makes sense to look for strong-growth companies going through temporary challenges and trading at convenient valuations.

I've created a screen of dividend paying stocks with a solid growth momentum. Those stocks have shown investors increasing sales over years while analysts predicting a rosy future. Earnings should grow for the mid-term at double-digit rates.

In addition, my focus is on higher capitalized stocks with a lower beta and debt. Twelve stocks fulfilled my criteria of which one has a yield of more than 3 percent and ten are recommended to buy.

These are the highest yielding results:

Cracking The Best Healthcare Dividend Stock Secret

This Weekend my eyes and thoughts curved around the Healthcare sector. 

I read several interesting articles from the sector, mostly about the biotech’s and new Hepatitis C drugs from Gilead, Sovaldi and Harvoni.

Those are very expensive drugs with potential to kill the current medical systems but they also generate tons of cash for their corporate.

I also noticed that the Healthcare sector grows at a much faster pace than the economy does, with 10+ percent. How can you benefit from this trend? I don't know. Prices are high, even on free cash flow basis.

Second, the old synthetic drug cash cow system from Pfizer doesn't work anymore. PFE is losing revenues. Even Teva, a generic drug manufacturer, struggles.

In order to get an overview about modest valuated growth stocks from the Healthcare sector, I've created a screen for large capitalized sector members with the following main criteria:

- EPS growth next five years: over 5 percent

- Sales growth past five years: over 5 percent

- Forward P/E under 20

- Positive Dividend

14 attractive healthcare growth stocks remain. It's a very selective list with focus on sales and earnings growth. You can find the full results attached. 

You may also interested in my older articles about healthcare dividend stocks.

Below are also five of my favorites. Which stocks do you like? Please let me know.

8 Top Stocks With Recent Dividend Growth Or Stock Buyback Announcements

Below are the latest dividend growers and stocks with a fresh buyback announcement. I hope you have some fun by reading and discovering new stock ideas.

18 companies have raised their dividend payments during the past week. The biggest stocks are Merck, Aetna and Becton, Dickinson and Company. You can discover more results at the end of this post.

In addition, 13 companies announced a new or refreshed share buyback program. The biggest stocks are ACE Limited, Westlake Chemical and The Vasper Corporation as well. The full list of buyback companies is also attached.

Please donate if you find some values in my screens. Thank you so much for reading and supporting my work.

These are some of the biggest results from the past week:

Money Raiser Of The Week: 7 Top Stocks With Fresh Dividend Growth Or Share Buybacks

Dividend growth and share buybacks are two main activities to increase the potential shareholder value and give money back to their owners. 

I like those transactions because it's a clear signal to investors which get rewarded by taking risk and borrowing money.

There is no free lunch and you might agree with me that each good managed company should raise dividends in order to satisfy investors. 

For sure some companies have no possibility to give money back to the financial market because of slipping sales and margin pressure. My answer: Those stocks are not in focus of my research!

Today I like to highlight stocks that gave investors more money via dividend growth or share buybacks within the recent week. These are some of the biggest companies:

5 Stocks Warren Buffett Keeps An Eye On...

Attached are five more stocks with fundamentals that meet Warren Buffett target criteria. 

I've introduced a few more stocks in this blog earlier this month and I believe that it's a good tool to get new stock ideas in a hot market.

The markets are not cheap for the time being and high-quality stocks have a much higher premium rate. But the good thing is that this should not make it impossible to find new investment targets.

You must have patience to get the right investments at the right prices. Only the disciplined investor makes the better return.

5 stocks with Warren Buffett like criteria are...

27 Stocks With Bigger Dividends (Full Compilation)

Stocks with dividend hikes from last week originally published at long-term-investments.blogspot.com. 27 companies increased their dividends within the recent week. You can find the full list attached and some of my favorites in the article below.

Cheapest Dividend Paying Large Caps As of October 2013

Cheap large capitalized stocks with high growth originally published at “long-term-investments.blogspot.com. I always look for stocks with a cheap valuation and modest growth perspectives.

While the interest environment is low, the market valuation is extraordinary high and it’s more important to take care about a solid price in order to ensure not to overpay a stocks.

Each month I create a quick list that allows me to observe the market by the cheapest growth picks. You can find my criteria below.

These are the criteria for my cheapest dividend paying large cap screen:

- Market Capitalization over USD 10 billion

- Expected Earnings per share growth over 10 percent for the next five years

- Forward P/E ratio under 15

- P/S under 1 and P/B ratio under 2

- Positive Dividends

Only fourteen stocks fulfilled these criteria of which twelve have a current buy or better rating by brokerage firms.

Ex-Dividend Stocks: Best Dividend Paying Shares On October 08, 2013

The best yielding and biggest ex-dividend stocks researched by ”long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates.

The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

In total, 22 stocks go ex dividend - of which 8 yield more than 3 percent. Here is a full list of all stocks with ex-dividend date within the current week.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding, higher capitalized ex-dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
Anworth Mortgage Asset Corp.	ANH	669.33M	7.73	0.78	3.70	10.34%
AT&T, Inc.	T	181.61B	25.57	2.11	1.42	5.33%
Darden Restaurants, Inc.	DRI	6.08B	16.57	2.94	0.70	4.71%
Verizon Communications Inc.	VZ	134.94B	87.22	3.96	1.14	4.50%
WGL Holdings Inc.	WGL	2.16B	15.50	1.61	0.87	4.01%
UDR, Inc.	UDR	5.90B	-	2.09	7.85	3.98%
General Mills, Inc.	GIS	30.83B	18.03	4.52	1.70	3.17%
E. I. du Pont de Nemours	DD	54.12B	23.09	4.14	1.53	3.07%
Brady Corp.	BRC	1.54B	-	1.86	1.34	2.61%
Ingles Markets Inc.	IMKTA	659.00M	53.37	1.65	0.17	2.42%
OGE Energy Corp.	OGE	7.13B	21.02	2.53	1.97	2.34%
Covidien plc	COV	28.04B	16.80	2.90	2.63	2.12%
Choice Hotels International Inc.	CHH	2.50B	22.43	-	3.52	1.72%
Kadant Inc.	KAI	360.38M	13.00	1.43	1.12	1.55%
Raven Industries Inc.	RAVN	1.14B	25.92	4.82	2.98	1.53%
Ethan Allen Interiors Inc.	ETH	776.42M	24.20	2.32	1.06	1.49%
Barnes Group Inc.	B	1.91B	26.12	1.96	1.64	1.24%
Aetna Inc.	AET	23.67B	13.26	1.76	0.59	1.20%
Intuit Inc.	INTU	19.76B	24.20	5.59	4.74	1.15%
Lincoln National Corp.	LNC	11.48B	9.39	0.86	0.98	1.11%