With the economy improving, leverage low and cash flow coverage already strong, dividend growth is likely to accelerate in the fourth quarter. Read More

When a company cuts its dividend the key question is always if there’s more bad news to come. Read More

A rising stream of earnings and cash flow will become a flood if energy prices rebound in coming years. Read More

There’s no better discounting mechanism than the stock market, which for communications is already pricing in the bad news and none of the good. That’s a formula for investor profits and a reason to buy, not head for the hills. Read More

Do surging gold prices indicate inflation is making a comeback? We probably won’t be able to answer that one for a while. But one thing the yellow metal’s strength does indicate is the debasement of the US dollar after a year of unprecedented “quantitative easing” to head off depression, as well as the fact that the US is no longer the world’s only major market for raw materials. Read More

By late 2008 it was clear even to the man on the street that this country had become chronically over-leveraged. Too many people had taken on too much debt they couldn’t possibly service, and exposure to default was too widespread for the center to hold. Read More

My goal isn’t to beat the averages month by month, quarter by quarter or even year by year. Rather, it’s to build wealth over a period of years. And that means being willing to hold positions I’m comfortable with though tough times. Read More

This “best of times” for the renewable energy sector, of course, corresponds to a challenging period for producers of conventional energy, particularly of the oil, natural gas and coal that fuel more than three-quarters of America’s power plants and nearly 100 percent of our transportation. Read More

The US economy is not out of the woods. But four in five How They Rate companies met or beat their second quarter guidance. That’s the best possible sign they can handle whatever this bear market/recession has left. Read More

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. Applied to investing, that means a high, growing and reliable dividend is worth at least twice a lofty estimate for future profit growth, Wall Street’s classic IOU. Read More