Dividend Dreams

Alpine Fund Dividend Cuts

Mike — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:00:25 +0000

Recently, two CEFs (AOD & AGD) from Alpine were forced to cut dividends by a large margin. Those of you counting on the income may be somewhat shaken by the news, but I think it will be for the best. The methods they use for income revolve around rotating holdings based on dividend payments. With recent cuts or reductions by the companies they hold they were forced to employ some leverage and churn holdings at a rate of nearly 650% annually. I think that with the reductions they will churn less and reduce leverage. I believe that the end result will be a full recovery of these CEFs over the next year or so as the general economy worldwide improves. I would expect the monthly payouts to remain the same into the 2nd quarter of 2011 and then get a slight increase.

The third Alpine CEF, AWP, reduced dividends a while back and has been doing fairly well since. It has also raised its dividend once since the initial cut. Not too bad for a fund that is essentially a REIT.

Also keep in mind that all three pay out any unpaid income at the end of the year.

Wells Fargo Cheated Customers

Mike — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:50:44 +0000

Wells Fargo was recently fined for the way it handled overdraft fees and transaction processing. The practice is not uncommon in the industry and you should verify the policies of your bank to be certain of how it may affect you.

Here is the article.

Retiree Savings Issues

Mike — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:20:05 +0000

The article linked below theorizes that nearly 50% of baby-boomers will outlive their retirement funds and be hard-pressed to fund more than basic retirement expenses.

Article

Trade Vanguard ETFs for Free

Mike — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:08:02 +0000

Vanguard has entered the trading fee fray and will be offering free trades of its own ETFs via the Vanguard brokerage unit. If you already use them it is a nice benefit and new folks could create a solid portfolio based on some of the lowest fee ETFs around. Read Article

PBS Frontline Program on the Market Collapse

Mike — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:59:41 +0000

Here is the link to a good PBS show on how some of the market issue came into being.

It runs about an hour and is well worth watching. PBS Video

Quote – 04/17/2010

Mike — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:05:39 +0000

The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money. – Author Unknown

HTGC – Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc.

Mike — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:21:34 +0000

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

FAX – Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Fund

Mike — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:18:37 +0000

This fund is mostly focused on Australia and South Korea followed by the Philippines and Hong Kong. It is 65% invested in corporate bonds followed by 29% government bonds and has an average rating of A+. They also make use of roughly 25% leverage which isn’t a bad thing considering they are using cheap money to buy better paying bonds.

Here are some of the relevant stats:

Yield: 6% paid monthly (currently $.035/share)
Cap: 1.74B
Volume: 800k
Fees: 1.37%
Beta: 0.74
Cost: 6.55 (selling at a 2.5% discount to NAV)

If you need a little Asian coverage with the stability of Australia as well then this may be a fund to research further.

EDR – Education Realty Trust Inc.

Mike — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:58:25 +0000

Education Realty Trust, Inc. is a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that owns, develops and manages high-quality student housing communities throughout the United States. Led by a team with over 200 years of shared industry experience, EDR is one of America’s largest owners and operators of collegiate student housing. The Company has ownership and management interests in 65 properties with 38,143 beds in a total of 21 states. Here are the stats:

Yield: 4%+ (after recent cut, so it’s likely safe)
Size: $275 million
Volume: 450,000
Beta: 1.5
Owned: 86% institutional

Make millions from the IRS?

Mike — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:54:04 +0000

The article below talks about an IRS program that pays out substantial rewards for turning in tax cheats. With a little effort you could make a nice second income.

Read the article.