If you talk to young people and ask them about footwear, many of them will know the brand Doc or Dr. Martens because the boot is fashionable in the music scene. The reason the boots are fashionable is they air-cushioned boots with the distinctive yellow stitching. If you are a runner and see the air cushioned running shoes, you understand the air cushioned boots.

In an article by Pan Pylas of the Associated Press, Dr. Martens was founded after WWII in Germany by Dr. Klaus Maertens. He had a broken foot and teamed up with a mechanical engineer Dr. Herbert Funk and designed a shoe with an air-cushioned support. The big buyers in the early years were older women.

In 1960, a British firm Griggs bought an exclusive license to the company and added the yellow stitching. The music industry discovered the boots along with factory workers.

The company was sold to private equity firm Permira who installed new management and restructured the company. Chief Executive Kenny Wilson said the company which sells about 11 million pairs a year in 60 countries has room for expansion. Permira is selling 35% of the equity.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, many companies go through cycles, but if the company has consistent sales and offers potential there will be people who want to own the company. In the case of Dr. Martens boot sales are consistent and the owners were satisfied with constant sales, but many things can be better, but the key is consistency of revenues.

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

Every once in a while, you will read or hear about the frothy market or a potential downturn is and will happen, maybe soon. In the stock market the only perfect information is the information that has already happened, no one knows why the market will go down, although if the Federal Reserve does raise interest rates that would be a positive sign markets will turn – alternatives will be available. For now, you can hope markets will continue to go up, but by being cautious or prudent it is necessary to look at traditional alternatives which defend your portfolio from the downside.

For dividend investors, one of the reasons to like utilities is they have a monopoly and regulators tend to increase the prices every year, however the issue is which company or companies to invest in?

Gary Christie Head of North American research at Trading Central offered some ideas:

He used his Trading Central Strategy Builder to search for US utilities, his criteria was:

minimum market capitalization of $10 billion which tends to lead to well-established companies and ideally less volatility in the stock price.

select stocks with a P/E Ratio at or below the S&P 500 index which at the time was 30.

dividend yield better than the average of the S&P or higher than 1.6%

want companies with a positive average dividend growth rate over the past 5 years

low debt-to-equity ratio or low leverage, understanding utilities need debt to build capital improvements

Company Mkt Cap Div 5 Yr Div Debt/ P/E Ytd 1 Yr Recent

$ bil Yld% Yld % Eq. Perf % Per % Price

Algonquin Power 10.2 3.7 9.4 0.9 20.6 2.8 11.2 21.71

Public Service Ent 28.5 3.5 4.4 1.1 14.9 -3.3 -6.2 57.54

WEC Energy Group 28.7 3.0 9.3 1.2 23.8 -1.3 -8.0 90.86

Atmos Energy Group 11.4 2.8 8.0 0.7 18.6 -4.8 -21.9 91.29

Exelon Corp 40.0 3.7 4.0 1.2 16.9 -2.8 -14.2 42.52

Sempra Energy 34.6 3.5 7.9 1.3 18.5 -5.9 -24.4 122.84

Evergy Energy 12.0 4.1 7.0 1.2 18.9 -5.0 -27.0 54.14

Consolidated Edison 24.0 4.3 3.1 1.3 17.7 -1.0 -24.2 71.32

Alliant Energy 12.2 3.3 6.2 1.2 18.3 -4.9 -17.1 49.45

Ameren Corp 18.6 2.7 3.6 1.3 22.0 -3.8 -7.3 75.57

Linking to dividend paying stocks, utilities are a favorite for dividend investors because they generally are dependable over the long term, you may want to start with the company you pay utilities to, then move across the region and country. With utilities you can check their highs and lows of the stock price and buy the companies for the dividend.

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

In the 1960’s a senior executive of GM testifying before the Senate said to the effect As GM goes so does the US economy. For many years, that has essentially true because GM had a 40% market share. 5 different brands for each income tax bracket, their cars were leaders in style, performance and the public loved driving them. Then the public changed in the 70’s and 80’s and started buying smaller cars which GM did not want to build – they gave the market to Japanese and German automakers and GM has been trying to get back to the top of the mountain ever since.

Over the past couple of years, people have loved what Tesla is doing particularly investors who give high valuations to the Tesla stock. The other vehicle companies would love to have the valuation Tesla has and with a new President in office with a Green Deal, GM has changed to match the President.

In an article by Jeffery Jones and Eric Atkins, GM’s chief executive officer Mary Barra said GM will spend $27 billion over the next 5 years to be able to offer emission free light duty vehicles across its price ranges. GM will move towards the gradual phasing out of the gas internal combustion engines it has built for 113 years. The company employs more than 160,000 people.

The goal is to sell 30 electric vehicles in global markets and 40% of its US product line powered by batteries by the middle of this decade.

There will be a number of issues going forward – electric vehicles have fewer parts than internal combustion engines or fewer people in the plant will be required. There are different sources of materials in the electric vehicle, battery life and how far can one go before recharging is the issue. If it is about what you do in the internal combustion engine, people have to go to the gas station or recharging station, perception is important, then there maybe no real changes for driving habits. Tesla cars have a great deal of software attached to them, similar to the way Microsoft or Apple sends updates to your computer, Telsa sends updates to their cars. The vehicle’s software is important aspect of the car experience.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you look at a list of top market capitalized stocks over the years, the names tend to change. Sometimes the change is gradual, sometimes it is seemingly rapid when new industries come forward, there is change in the marketplace. How management deals with the change is one of the things as an investor you have to evaluate. If you like how they adapt, then holding the stock can be a very good thing, otherwise look at alternatives.

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

The largest manufacturer in the US is Boeing. When Boeing makes and sells planes it is the largest company in the export balance of trade numbers or Boeing sells a lot of planes. If and when you believe the COVID is over and people can fly across country and around the world, the shares of Boeing is one of those companies expecting to move upwards. However, there is always a however in the investing world, Boeing had a very tough year.

In an article by Eric Johnson and Ankit Ajmera of Reuters, Boeing took a $6.5 billion charge on its new 777X Jetliner, this past year it slashed production which meant thousands of jobs were laid off and it had to battle to change reputations concerning the 737 Max. Boeing’s chief executive officer Dave Calhoun said the 777X will enter service in late 2023 as opposed to 2022.

Mr. Calhoun said despite the difficulties, Boeing has sufficient liquidity to manage the downturn. In terms of the 737 Max, Boeing has delivered 40 planes from its inventory, by the beginning of 2022 it expects to produce 31 of the 737 Max a month.

Boeing unveiled $8.3 billion in operating charges including $468 million for abnormal 737 production costs, $275 million over KC-46 aerial refueling tanker production issues, and $744 million settlement with the US Justice over a fraud conspiracy charge.

The company’s net loss rose to $8.44 billion up from $1.01 billion a year earlier, taking its full year losses to $11.94 billion. Revenue fell 15% to $15.3 billion in the quarter.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, Boeing has a duopoly with Airbus in the manufacturer of planes and because of that situation it can afford to make one time big mistakes and still be considered a good investment. As people begin to feel comfortable flying and the pent up energy to go somewhere is released, Boeing will be one of the beneficiaries of this trend because airlines will need their planes. When you buy into a dividend producing stock, it does not mean it is a perfect stock – they all have their issues, but it does mean it has the ability to weather a downturn and still be a good investment. There is always risk, however being hopeful for the future is a good thing.

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

In late January, the company which pays the most dividends in the world reported on how it was doing. The company, not surprising is doing even better during the pandemic and there is no reason to suspect once the world changes, the company will not be doing well. Microsoft was late to cloud computing, Amazon’s AWS is the market leader, but Microsoft is growing fast. The division grew at 50% in the second quarter.

Microsoft owns other things such as Linkedin which saw a recovery in sales. The Xbox gaming business dealt with a chip shortage that has emerged, it is slowing down production of automobile vehicles, but Microsoft’s people secured enough chips that people were able to secure Xboxes.

In an article by Reuters, the cloud computing business grew at 50% beating estimates of growth at 41% and revenues reached $14.6 billion.

Revenues from Windows software and Xbox gaming consoles rose 14% to $15.1 billion beating estimates of $13.5 billion.

It is good when a big company such as Microsoft beats estimates because the pie is getting bigger, rather than stealing market share from its competitors. As the pie gets bigger, revenues can continue to grow and the world’s biggest payer of dividends will continue to pay dividends.

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

In the last week of January and early part of February a company made most of the financial news because something was different. The company was Game-Stop which jumped from $20 to over $450 settling in somewhere between $200 and $300. It is a good story and involves short selling and panic buying to cover shorts and margin calls and generally most of the things dividend paying investors stay away from, however it is an interesting story.

With some of my dividends, Blackberry stock was bought – while 95% of the stocks in the portfolio pay a dividend, it is good as an individual to have some possible turnarounds giving the correct market conditions and management decisions. There is hope in buying a stock which is out of favor for very good reasons, but the company does have potential good assets to build. It was a very pleasant surprise one day the stock jumps into the $30 range and having the good graces to sell most of the holding.

We buy stock for dividends and some capital gain, when the capital gain comes, there is the possibility of selling some of the stock and lowering you cost to own it. If the stock doubles and you sell 50%, essentially the other 50% cost you nothing, because you took out your capital. You can hold the rest for as long or as short as you wish. If the stock falls it is okay. Having said all that, it is difficult to sell under an easy capital gain. Is there more to come? will you leave money on the table? those are all good decisions to have to make. The other side is if the stocks falls, do you hold? do you cut your losses? Experience helps makes the decisions, but easy gains feel wonderful, because the market has reaffirmed your homework and decision making abilities.

In the past month, the WallStreetBets on Reddit website and if you have not checked it out, you should look through it. There is a lot of banter, but there has always been a lot of banter in the watering holes or bars around Wall Street. What’s hot? What’s new? What is the investor who makes a lot of money doing with their money? what sector? can you ride along. The decisions around quick and fast money are not new and they will be around as long as you can make money in any market.

The huge focus on Game-Stop caused the rest of the market to focus on it and shares were sold to buy Game-Stop on the way up and down. Fortunately or unfortunately momentum traders are always trying to find the next thing. Maybe similar to me, one of the stocks you own that was out of favor will be in the next round of momentum traders sights. Remember many companies on the stock market are tied to commodity prices, when they rise those stocks connected to the commodity prices rise to, which ones you buy is the homework you need to do.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the long term investing in profitable companies which pay a dividend and can raise the dividend has proven to be a very successful way to increase your wealth over time. It allows you to sleep well at night and worry about people rather than stock market prices. Having said that, it is nice to make a quick dollar which allows you to buy more dividend paying stocks to reinvest, do nothing, spend or make larger donations to causes you support.

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

When you invest, you expect that the investments will be honest or above board and you will not lose money. You expect and understand why there is some greasing of the wheels, it is not over the top. And if someone does get caught, the person who goes to jail or loses assets is someone who lives the lifestyle of a very wealthy person or actually is a wealthy person.

The above does not happen often but there are exceptions. In an article by Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters, a mining tycoon was convicted in a Swiss court. The mining tycoon is Beny Steinmetz who runs the Ben Seinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) which employs over 100,000 people in the mining industry. Mr. Steinmetz is a citizen of Israel. He was found guilty of corruption and forgery and sentenced to jail and a fine of 50 million Swiss francs ($56.48 million).

In the country of Guinea, the BSGR was going to open an iron ore mine in the Simandou mountains of Guinea. The BSGR group offered a $10 million bride to gain the exploration permits and forged documents through a series of shell companies to try to cover it up.

In the court, Justice Banna said that Mr. Steinmetz had made an immediate profit from the mining rights and not a cent went to the government of Guinea.

Bernhard Maier a London attorney representing mining companies said, the case demonstrates a world of increasing transparency and scrutiny, as a result of technology and the internet, there is more accountability.

Mr. Steinmetz’s lawyer Marc Bonnant said he would launch an appeal.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the tools that help companies determine customer preferences are also the tools that can be used to keep companies more accountable. It is best to buy into a company which has reasonably high ethics in the first place, because then you do not have to worry about it the first place. Being honest and ethical helps you sleep at night and in the long term makes you wealthier.

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

When you think about the big trading houses on Wall Street, the firm Goldman Sachs comes to the list because they do an excellent job of making money through all types of markets. When the markets were not doing well, everyone thinks Goldman Sachs is rigging the market for themselves, when the markets are rising they do even better. The company is not perfect, it was sued and lost a Malaysia’s law suit but the company continues to power on.

In an article by Anirban Sen and Matt Scuffman of Reuters, Goldman reported a 4th quarter profit powered by its trading desk and a surge in fees from underwriting a string of blockbuster IPOs.

Revenue from global markets which houses the bank’s flagship trading business had its best performance in a decade. Sales jumped 23% to $4.27 billion in the quarter or $21.2 billion for the year.

Total revenue climbed 18% to $11.74 billion. The bank’s net earnings applicable to common shareholders rose to $4.36 billion or $12.08 a share. Analysts were expecting $7.47 a share.

The bank’s trading desk generally works with governments and large institutions but the company is setting up a consumer loans and credit card business. The business rose 52% to $347 million or $1.21 billion a year. The bank generates most of its profits from the trading desk.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, traders like active markets and if there are rising active markets they like it better because there are even more profits to be made. IPOs from companies help generate fees, the company invests more in AI and finds areas to make money. Goldman has been a leader on Wall Street and continues there, while they are the leader it is safe investment to make in their stock. If your companies you invest in are leaders in their fields, the important question is are they still the leader, if they are you can hold, if the leadership is falling it is time to look for alternatives.

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

The economy runs on credit and most of the credit comes from banks in the form of loans and lines of credit. In mid January, Bank of America is the second largest bank in the US which has a relationship with every 2 average citizen. For this reason, we look to how the banks are doing and is credit still in the economy?

In an article by Noor Zainab Hussain and Imani Moise of Reuters wrote about Bank of America which reported on their 4th quarter. Total loans and leases at the bank were down 6% in 2020. The demand for loans were down, customers saved more and large companies relied on capital markets for funds rather than their bank (one area was the SPACs).

Chief Financial Officer Paul Donofrio believes Bank of America should be able to grow Net Interest Income (NII) able to grow because deposits and loans are growing. the NII is expected to increase in 2021 with the biggest gains in the last half of the year.

Consumer and small business transaction volume across the 2nd largest business rose 7% but its fixed income trading desk missed estimates. Net income applicable to common shareholders fell to $5.21 billion or 59 cents a share for the quarter. Last year the company made $6.75 billion or 74 cents a share. Analysts on average had expected a profit of 55 cents a share.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, unless the economy collapses and then the government would step in to bail out the too big to fail banks, the banks are seen as the bell weather for the economies and generally because the big banks have many areas for profit are profitable companies which pay dividends. It is hard not to own the banks directly or indirectly (ie. index fund of the market) and it is hoped that both individually and as a country this will be a good year.

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