Dividend Dreams

Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. is a specialty financing company providing monies of between one and 25 million to mostly small private companies. The sectors they focus on include communications, networking, software, drug discovery and electronics. Obviously there is some risk involved in this type of business but I think there is a good chance at some capital gains to go along with the nice yield. They recently dropped the dividend to 20 cents from 30 cents but I anticipate it will get bumped up before mid-2011. They recently closed some financing deals (3 so far this month) that could help. Here are some of the stats:

Market Cap: 377 million
Yield: 7.5%, $0.20 paid quarterly
Volume: 200k+ daily
P/E (ttm): 28.6,
Forward P/E: 7.6
RoE: 3.6
Debt/Equity Ratio 0.36

Below is the latest ranking of the top 100 mid-cap stock from Forbes.com. It can be sorted a number of ways and may give you some insight to some stocks primed for great growth without some of the risks associated with small-cap stocks.

Click here for the article.

I like the look of Deckers Outdoor (DECK) but since we are after dividends here I may go with Tower Group Inc. (TWGP) as a recommended pick as well as Quality Systems Inc. (QSII)

This is a list of U.S. companies that have raised dividend payouts every year for at least 25 consecutive years. The oldest entry has raised them for 56 straight years!  This list is current as of 08/31/2009.

Dividend Champions

StoneMor Partners is an owner and operator of cemeteries and funeral homes in the United States, with 235 cemeteries and 59 funeral homes in 27 states and Puerto Rico. StoneMor is the only publicly traded deathcare company structured as a partnership.

This is one of the few individual small-cap stocks that I own. They are in a business that isn’t going away anytime soon.  Despite medical advances the world death rate remains at 100% and is holding steady.

They were recently named One of America’s 100 Fastest Growing Small Public Companies by Fortune Small Business magazine. You can read about it here.

They have had consistent quarterly dividends above 10% were a welcome addition to my portfolio about two years ago. I like to add to my position when the stock price dips. Limit orders are the way to go.