Weekend Reading Links July 17-22, 2011

Find enclosed summary links of published dividend stock and dividend yield articles as well as videos from last week.

· Dividend Stock Idea of the Day – The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP)

· 12 Undervalued Dividend Stocks With Low Debt

· 18 Cheap High Yield Stocks By Price-To-Free Cash Flow

· William B. Frels Fund Portfolio Q2/2011

· 10 Chinese Stocks With Highest Dividend Yield

· Dividend Stock Idea of the Day – LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (FR:MC)

· High Yield Financial Shares With Growing Dividends

· Dividend Champions With Great Profitability

· Best European Dividend Stocks With Margins Over 25 Percent

· 5 Cheap Shares With Substantial Dividends

· Tweedy Browne Team Fund Portfolio Q2/2011

· 4 Stocks You Should Prefer Government Bonds

· Solid Dividend Shares In Volatile Markets

· Arnold Van Den Berg Fund Portfolio Q2/2011

· Dividend Stock Idea of the Day – Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT)

· High Yield Shares From S&P 500

· Best Yielding Industrial Shares

· Best Dividends In Management Services Industry

· Best S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat Shares By Yields July 2011

· 4 Best Dividend S&P 500 Shares With Increasing Profitability

· Best Pharmaceutical Shares For Income Investors

· 25 Best Dividend Aristocrats For Your Dividend Portfolio

· Marc Faber On CNBC July 2011 + U.S. Will Come to an Agreement on Debt

· Dividend Stock Idea of the Day – Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC)

· High Yield Stock List July 2011

· Dividend Stock Idea of the Day – General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)

· Donald Yacktman Fund Portfolio Q2/2011

· John A. Gunn - Dodge & Cox Fund Portfolio Q2/2011

· 3 Largest Producers Of Diabetes Care Products With Good Dividend Yields

How George Soros Plays The Stock Market

The following article was written by our guest author Insider Monkey. Opinions of George Soros vary depending on whom you ask, but there’s no arguing against the Hungarian-American hedge fund manager’s investing pedigree. Earlier this month, Soros shared his thoughts on the Eurozone crisis at the Global Economic Symposium, and most of the usual headlines that surround the billionaire are focused on his macroeconomic views.

That’s all fine and dandy. We’d like to point out, though, that George Soros’ Soros Fund Management does maintain a $9 billion equity portfolio too. Due to the market-beating potential of hedge funds’ best stock picks (discover how we returned 47.6% in our first year), it’s useful to understand how a prominent investor like Soros is playing the stock market.

At the end of last quarter, George Soros and his management team disclosed a little over 200-equity holdings, with 15% of their capital allocated to their top five stock picks. This level of concentration is not uncommon for a large hedge fund, but a few of the specific names may surprise you.

Google

Other than Google [GOOG], that is. It’s really not very difficult to understand why the tech company is Soros’ No. 1 stock. Google was hedge funds’ favorite pick in the latest round of 13F filings, ahead of AIG [AIG] and Apple [AAPL]. Aside from offering a bevy of long-term product innovations like self-driving cars or smart thermostats, more immediate catalysts are the launch of the Moto X and next year’s release of Google Glass.

Both devices play into Wall Street’s bullish earnings estimates for Google, in which it expects 17% to 18% EPS growth in 2014 and 15% annual growth over the next half-decade. This trumps peers like Yahoo [s:YHOO] and even Apple. In addition to Soros’ bullishness, big-name fund managers Ray Dalio and Israel Englander have initiated Google positions in the last few months.

J.C. Penney

This is what we meant when we said you might be surprised. J.C. Penney [JCP] represents everything Google does not: poor market performance in 2013, high CEO turnover, an inconsistent business plan, and an uncertain future. The retailer is going back to its pre-Ron Johnson coupon strategy, which leads some to believe that it can recapture most of its old customers, and is thus undervalued at current levels.

It’s easier to be skeptical of this move than it is to support a bullish thesis, so we have a rare case where Soros is acting as a contrarian by betting on a stock rather than against it. Assuming you are for a turnaround here, J.C. Penney trades at a mere 0.15 times sales, but earnings will have to pick up. Longs can’t take many more monumental bottom line whiffs. Last quarter the retailer missed sell-side estimates by 88%, and in the first quarter of the year, EPS fell short of consensus by 36%. In fact, J.C. Penney has been in the red for a year and a half now.

A few days ago, Richard Perry cut almost half of his position in the retailer and last month, Bill Ackman liquidated his entire stake. What’s so notable about both of these moves is that Ackman’s hedge fund had the largest stake in J.C. Penney at the end of last quarter while Perry was third.

The remaining three

After the antithetical duo of Google and J.C. Penney, Soros’ next largest holdings are Herbalife [HLF], Charter Communications [CHTR] and Johnson & Johnson [JNJ].

While Ackman and Carl Icahn continue to feud about the legitimacy of Herbalife’s marketing practices, George Soros continues to book gains. Since we know that he held shares of the company on the last day of June, it can be inferred that Soros has made at least a 51% return on his long position. If he initiated the stake earlier in the second quarter, like in early May for example, this return stretches to more than 70%. Either way, the billionaire has to be happy that it represents one of his biggest holdings.

Charter Communications, meanwhile, is another stock that is up big (+72%) in 2013. The cable entertainment company has been a long-term pick for Soros, sitting in his clutches since early 2011. The same can be said for Johnson & Johnson, which has been in Soros’ equity portfolio for exactly four quarters. Johnson & Johnson is a prototypical dividend-payer that has actually offered double-digit capital gains this year, while Charter is a growth play plain and simple.

All in all, the variety presented in George Soros’ five largest stock picks is truly one of the best things about this group. Google, J.C. Penney and Herbalife are the three we’ll watch the closest going forward, particularly when new 13F filings come in mid-November.

Disclosure: none

Top High Volume Gainers Stocks As Of November 2010

Here is a current list of the top high volume gainers stocks from the past 30 days. Stocks on this list have gained 10% or more in the past month with one-month average trading volume at least double the average volume of the past quarter. For some of the companies, a takeover bid was announced; other published over expectations earnings releases. But for most of the stocks it is unknown why trading volume is up. Here is the table of the top high volume gainers of the past month:

Related stock ticker symbols:

CTV, ARTG, AVNR, PIP, REE, CLRT, SVR, AGAM, ZAGG, ASTM, GMO, SIGA, BJGP, MOTR, FMR, SRI, SUR, LODE, ICLK, PAM, OINK, YUII, MGIC, TOELF, IRS, SHMR, TEAM, WRLS, VTRO, EDN, PMUG, AFOP, GIW, URPTF, ORMT, NMRX, CHNR, SDVKF, CCCL, RHAYY, CSUWF

Warren Buffett Buys And Sells These Stocks Surprisingly

Warren Buffett and his team of portfolio managers listed some 148 positions worth a whopping $147.9 billion in equities in the official Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This compared to $128.8 billion as of the end of the third quarter of 2016 and $115.46 billion as of December 31.

It is important to understand that some changes are made by Warren Buffett himself, with 14 sub-entities of Berkshire Hathaway in prior filings. Other changes may have come from the likes of newer portfolio managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs. It appears as though the Buffett portfolio managers have been given much larger investing amounts.

If there is one key takeaway for the 2017 stocks it would be that this was one of the largest changes we have seen in years. New stakes were added and other stakes were grown. Other stakes were cleaned out or decreased.

Attached you will find a small overview of Warren Buffett's latest stock buys and sells during Q4 in 2016...

Who's in the Club? Determining the Members of S&P 500

How the Standard & Poors 500 (S&P 500) is composed by Hayley Spencer. The S&P 500 is an exclusive club that is made up of 500 companies and captures roughly 75 percent of publicly traded companies in the U.S. However, just because you own a business doesn't mean you get to be listed in the index. To get here, and play with the big boys, you have to be selected by a team of economists and analysts at Standard and Poor's. There's no application, and you can't just walk up to the door and knock. You have to be invited. If a company grows so large that it is eligible to be included in the index, the folks at S&P will notice.

My Favorite Dividend Paying Buyback Hero Stocks

As you might know, I am a big fan of dividend growth and stock buybacks. Each action is a shareholder friendly way to give money back to the owner of the company.

Dividends are direct and share buybacks are indirect and more tax efficient. Both activities only make sense if the management team has a clear view about the valuation and growth perspectives or potential of the corporation. If there is an opportunity to grow with low risk, dividends shouldn't be paid in a big way. The same is neccessary for buybacks. There must be a mix of both in balance with growth.

Today I like to share a sheet of interesting stocks with good outstanding buyback programs. I've focused my research on growth and dividends while the valuation level doesn't exceed critical levels.

Here are my results...

100 Best Small Cap Stocks To Place Your Money

Small cap stocks with a strong growth and best dividends to buy, originally published at “long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Everybody loves growth. If you own an investment and it starts to grow by double-digit rates over a few years, when the stock price explode and you feel like a bird in heaven. I felt a few times like this. But it is also necessary that you sell partly your position over the time. I personally reduce my stocks positions when they have doubled or more. Certainly you can’t get very rich with this rule but you hedge your stock gains and believe me by selling stocks with gains, nobody become poor.

I recently viewed a nice list at Forbes. The list was a research result of the 100 best small cap growth stocks in America. Stocks from the table are public and tradeable in America. They all have a total sales volume below the USD 1 billion mark and fantastic years of recent growth. As you can see at the list, the GDP growth is America is still weak but out there are still investment opportunities to discover.

I discovered the ten best dividend stocks from the small cap growth picks. I needed to screen more than 50 companies in order to find ten stocks with positive dividend payments. Most of the small cap growth stocks don’t pay dividends. But the debt situation is very comfortable. Most of them are free of debt and have bigger cash amounts to their balance sheets in order to finance future growth. The average stock grew in sales by 19 percent yearly. Earnings followd by 31 percent growth yearly and the average return on equity amounted to 20 percent. See the full list of the 100 best small cap growth stocks at the end of this post.

Dividend Stock Idea of the Day – Nike (NYSE:NKE)

Dividend Stock Ideas by Dividend Yields – Stock, Capital Investment. Our Dividend Idea of the day is the sports apparel and shoes brand Nike (NYSE:NKE). The current dividend yield amounts to 1.5 percent.

NIKE, Inc. (NIKE) is engaged in design, development and marketing of footwear, apparel, equipment and accessory products. It is a seller of athletic footwear and athletic apparel in the world. It sells its products to retail accounts, through NIKE-owned retail, including stores and Internet sales, and through a mix of independent distributors and licensees, in over 170 countries around the world. NIKE’s athletic footwear products are designed primarily for specific athletic use. It also markets footwear designed for aquatic activities, baseball, cheerleading, football, golf, lacrosse, outdoor activities, skateboarding, tennis, volleyball, walking, wrestling, and other athletic and recreational uses. It also markets apparel with licensed college and professional team, and league logos. It sells a line of performance equipment under the NIKE brand name, including bags, socks, sport balls, eyewear, timepieces, electronic devices, bats, gloves and protective equipment (More on Reuters).

Here are some Fundamental Figures:

Sales	20.17 Bil
Income	2.06 Bil
Net Profit Margin	10.22%
Return on Equity	21.32%
Debt/Equity Ratio	0.06
Revenue/Share	41.26
Earnings/Share	4.22
Book Value/Share	20.88
Dividend Rate	1.24
Payout Ratio	27.00%

Here are some Pricing Figures:

Price/Earnings	19.3
Price/Book	3.9
Price/Sales	2
Price/Cash Flow	17.7
Dividend Yield %	1.5
Forward Price/Earnings	17
PEG Ratio	1.5
PEG Payback (Yrs)	9.1

Here are some Trading Figures:

Last Price	81.11
52-Wk High	92.49
52-Wk Low	66.34
Volume	2.62 Mil
Avg Daily Vol (13 Wks)	3.29 Mil
50-Day Moving Average	81.71
200-Day Moving Average	82.71
Volatility (beta)	0.92

Sales and Income Figures of Nike (Click to enlarge)

Do you have further dividend ideas you want to share with our audience? Please contact us and submit your stock idea here: dividendyields@googlemail.com

5 Highest Yielding Long-Term Dividend Plays In A Hot Stock Market

I had a great success with dividend stocks over the past decade. In total, I could realize a six-figure amount of money for my trading accounts. But if I compare the values with the time that I've spent over the recent decade, I could advice you to become a passive income investor.

As investor with a low share participation of the corporate, you can't change much. For sure, you can read annual reports and investor presentations but it is only for your own comprehension.

The best return will come from long-term investments from companies that cannot destroyed by a worse management team. Those are companies with strong brands and big market shares in the major key markets around the world.

If you would like to put your last money on the table, please consider this as it is your final trade. Below are 5 top long-term dividend growers that contain some kind of values. It’s very difficult to find really attractively priced stock, especially in a hot and with cheap money flooded market. But we cannot give up this fight for a good risk and inflation adjusted return.

5 highest yielding long term dividend grower...

11 Good Yielding Dividend Growth Stocks You Don't Want To Miss In Your Portfolio

If you are a fearful investor who scared about the ups and downs of the stock market, you must consider low volatility stocks with strong and growing cash flows.

In addition, the management team of the company should pay a solid amount of the net income back to shareholders. I talk about dividends and buybacks. Those are very shareholder friendly activities to create value for investors.

Today I like to introduce 11 dividend stocks that combine stable cash flows with high dividend yields above 3% and low stock price volatility. The stocks below reward investors each year with steady or rising dividend payments. Each of these 11 stocks has not reduced its dividend payments in over 25 years.

These are the results in detail:

100 Most Bought Stocks By Investment Gurus

100 most bought stocks by investment professionals originally published on Dividend Yield – Stock, Capital, Investment. I love it to see how the big investors act on the market. Some of them have a really interesting and creative investing strategy which works only with huge amounts of capital.

Some hedge funds play with money and try to boost its return by ignoring a good diversification. But if they know the business and management team the risk might be lower as for desk research investors like us.

However, each month I publish a little list about the largest stock buys from 49 super investors. I analyze how often a stock was bought over the recent six months and ranked them in my 100 best guru buy list. All super gurus combined bought 655 stocks within the recent half year.

In my view, it’s a good tool to look at the activities of guru investors in the market because they have big money in their pockets and if they invest combined, they could change the market very easily.

Their attitude to stocks is also lightning the way to return, not always but sometimes because the media notices the portfolio changes of the hedge fund managers and create additional publicity.

Technology is still the place to be for the investment guru’s. I think that they have noticed the huge cash reserves of Apple and the other stocks. Not enough, most of them are very profitable and grow further despite they don’t have new technologies developed.