National Grid PLC (LON:NG.) has been in the news recently after announcing an agreement to sell most of its UK gas distribution business. For some inexplicable reason I was watching CNBC that morning and the presenter said something along the lines of “surely income investors can’t go far wrong with National Grid’s 4.7% dividend yield”.…
One major difference between investors who focus primarily on dividends and investors who focus primarily on capital gains is their time horizon. Companies that pay dividends usually do so every six months, so a dividend investor who buys into a company will often have to wait several months before their first dividend appears. Capital gains,…
In recent months I’ve written about a range of dividend stocks from the high quality end of the spectrum: from Buffett-style stocks to consumer staples and consistent inflation-beaters. But being a dividend-focused investor is not only about buying into these high quality dividend growth companies. There is another side to the search for income –…
One of the things I like most about dividend investing is that there’s a good chance the income will grow faster than inflation. Take the FTSE 100’s dividend as an example. CPI inflation since 1986 has run at an annualised rate of 2.6% per year, whereas the FTSE 100’s dividend has grown by an annualised…
Most of the time, when a stock has a dividend yield which is significantly higher than the market average there’s a good chance the dividend is about to be cut or suspended. It happened recently to BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, although perhaps that is understandable since both are highly cyclical companies. It can also…
As seen in Master Investor Magazine Some of the biggest gainers from the UK’s decision to leave the EU were internationally-focused consumer defensive stocks. This comes on the back of what has already been a multi-year bull run for consumer defensives as investors look for low risk yield in a post financial crisis world. Like…
As seen in the latest issue of Master Investor Magazine If there was a league table for reasons why companies cut their dividends, then I’m pretty sure that excessive debts would be somewhere near the top. So the need to avoid companies with too much debt is important, but it’s even more important for high…
As seen in the latest issue of Master Investor Magazine As a dividend-focused investor I am of course looking to buy companies with a good yield and a sustainable and preferably growing dividend. However, I am also very much aware that dividend cuts and suspensions are a fact of life. I can try to avoid…
As seen in the lastest issue of Master Investor Magazine I’m going to be completely frank with you: you are not Warren Buffett and neither am I. He is quite simply a one in a billion genius and, as if that wasn’t enough, his brain has many decades of experience to tap into. The best…
When I first started out as an investor I was not in the least bit interested in dividends. My plan was to invest for growth by investing primarily in the accumulation units of a FTSE All-Share tracker, and then at some distant point in the future switch over to an income strategy, which would most…
