Are International Utilities Attractive Relative To Their U.S. Peers?

Stocks in the U.S. utility sector are lagging the performance of the overall market so far this year. While the utilities was performing up until recently, last month they fell heavily. The proxy for sector, the SPDR Utilities Select Sector (XLU) was down 8.5% just in last month through the 30th and is up only about …

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The Top 25 Cash-Rich S&P 500 Non-Financial Companies

Large U.S. companies hold billions of dollars in cash and cash-equivalents on their balance sheets. The largest of these 83 companies hold over $1.46 Trillion off-shore beyond the reach of the U.S. government according to a report by Bloomberg in March this year. Companies are hoarding such huge piles of cash overseas since they do …

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Ten Companies With Sustainable Competitive Advantages For Long-Term Investment

One of the defining characteristics of Capitalism is competition.  Indeed competition in capitalist countries such as the U.S. is so fierce that thousands of companies go out of business every year since they can’t compete effectively.However it should be noted that “real” competition does not exist in all industries with some dominated by oligopolies or …

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Should You Invest in National Bank of Greece ADR After 2nd Reverse Split ?

National Bank of Greece (NBG) has implemented a reverse split for the 2nd time in less than two years. In November, 2011 when the reverse split went into effect in the ratio 1:5 I noted that investors may want to avoid the stock. On May 30th, the bank reverse split the ADR again. This time they …

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Reinvesting Dividends Can Yield Excellent Returns

One of the dilemmas often faced by investors in dividend-paying stocks is if they should reinvest the dividends or not. Reinvesting dividends received from equity investments on a periodic basis such as monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or even annually can substantially boost the total returns earned, especially in the long-term due to the effect of compounding. …

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