Looking for Opportunities Among Europe’s Largest Electricity Companies

Most European equity markets were down by digits last year due to the debt crisis. Along with stocks from other sectors investors also dumped the traditionally stable utility stocks. The STOXX® Europe 600 Utilities Index reached a high of over 600 before the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008 in US dollar terms. On 1/20/12 …

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Some Fascinating Facts about the U.S. Financial Services Industry

The following are some interesting facts about the U.S. financial services industry from a research report published by The Financial Services Roundtable. I have included my comments for some of the events. Year    Event 1782    Pennsylvania chartered the first bank in the U.S. 1790   The federal government refinanced all federal and state Revolutionary War debt, …

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Review: Constituents of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index 2012

Standard & Poor’s publishes the widely followed S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index. This index ” measures the performance of large cap, blue chip companies within the S&P 500 that have followed a policy of increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years.” The index is composed of 51 companies and the five-year total …

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Performance of Dividend Paying Stocks At Different Tax Rates

Last week I wrote an article discussing the dividend yields of U.S. and foreign stocks. To quote from that post: Though it is commendable that U.S. companies are increasing their dividend payouts, they still lag when compared to the payouts of foreign companies. Relative to their overseas peers, U.S. firms hold over one Trillion $ …

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