In the world of the stock market. the greatest focus is what will go up? it is easier, it makes money for those who sell the shares and those who own the shares? but the focus is will the stock rise? Apple reported their earnings and last year was a great year for them, revenues of $ 54 billion, profit of $ 13 billion and they sold many ipads and  iphones. The problem with growth stocks is what will they do this year? will the stock price increase? will they sell as much or more than last year? or will the competition and there is great competition among the top tier companies push down margins (margins have been pushed down from 44% to 38%) and will Apple will sell less. If they sell less, but still a substantial amount, should the stock be valued as a growth stock?

Linking to dividend producing stocks, the difference with the analysis of dividend stocks is the first question is the dividend safe? will the company earn enough or grow the dividend? When the answer is yes, then the questions can examine will the stock price grow? All stock prices tend to trade in a range unless something substantial changes for example the company sells a major division to refocus on a core holding, what opportunities will it pursue? in the case of resource companies has the raw material increased in price? if they were making money at the lower price, they should be making even more at a higher price of the raw material. You can begin to do all sorts of permutations, but if you focus first on the dividend whether Apple makes $13 billion or $10 billion as long as it makes money to pay its dividends is a different way to focus on whether you should buy Apple or something else.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.