Dividends paid out by companies in the UK and Europe is concentrated among a few firms. In fact, only five large names generated 45% of all UK dividends in 2014 according to a report by Schroders. These companies were Royal Dutch Shell(RDS-A, RDS-B), HSBC(HBC), BP(BP), GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) and Vodafone(VOD). A few of the European large companies drive …
Continue reading ‘UK vs. Europe: Dividend Yield and Concentration Graphic’ »
Crude oil prices fell to a six-year low today and traded under $37 today.Prices of other commodities such as Iron Ore, Copper, Coal, etc. have also declined heavily in the past few months hurting miners. The S&P 500 is flat year-to-date. Though the US market has been through trials and tribulations over the past 11 months, it has …
Continue reading ‘As the Oil and Commodities Crash Continues, Stocks To Consider For Investment’ »
Investing in stocks of auto parts makers is a wise move for many reasons. For example, the demand for automobile parts is stable during economic expansions and contractions. In fact during recessions demand goes even higher as consumers try to repair their existing vehicles and use them instead of buying new ones. During good times, …
Continue reading ‘Investing In Auto Parts Makers Is A Wise Strategy’ »
One of the advantages of holding foreign equities in a well diversified portfolio is that the performance of US stocks and international stocks tend to deviate from one another. This means while US stocks may perform well in one year foreign stocks may not and vice versa. So by holding both foreign and US stocks …
Continue reading ‘Why Hold Foreign Stocks in a Portfolio?’ »
Equity investors have to ignore average returns reported for a short period of time like 3 years, 5 years, etc. This is because stocks are a very volatile asset class and and go up sharply as well as plunge dramatically from one year to the next. So simply taking an average over a very short-term like 3 …
Continue reading ‘Why Short-Term Average Returns Are Meaningless In Stock Investing’ »