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Rupert Hargreaves

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  • How Safe Are the Dividends of These 3 Oil Drillers?

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 17, 2013 | Tickers: ESV, HP, NBR

    Personally, I believe that one of the cheapest sectors in the market right now is the oil services sector, including oil and gas drilling companies.  Recently, these drillers have been sold-off as investors are concerned that the the number of hydrocarbon wells being drilled in the US is starting to fall, as the shale oil boom could be reaching its peak.

    However, these companies could be due for a positive more »

  • How Safe Are the Dividends of These 3 Steel Producers?

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 14, 2013 | Tickers: NUE, STLD, X

    The outlook for steel producers is not very good. With Chinese growth slowing and demand for steel around the world faltering, steel producers are finding it hard to turn a profit. That said, some of these companies actually offer dividend yields greater than 3%, above the market average of around 2%. So, with the outlook for the steel market deteriorating, are the dividend payouts of these companies sustainable?

    The contenders more »

  • How Safe Are the Dividends of These 3 Miners?

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 14, 2013 | Tickers: BHP, CLF, FCX

    Mining companies have long been criticized for not returning enough cash to shareholders. During the commodity boom before 2008, miners were highly profitable and chose to reinvest their cash in increasingly expensive capital projects rather than returning profits to investors.

    However, now the boom is over and these mining giants are coming under pressure to return cash to investors as share prices languish due to low growth and falling profits more »

  • Why Silver Miners' Dividends Are Unsafe

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 14, 2013 | Tickers: HL, PAAS, SLW

    Like their gold mining peers, silver miners have come under pressure recently to improve their cash returns to investors as stock prices languish. 

    Some have improved investor returns and one of them, Pan American Silver (NASDAQ: PAAS), now offers yields of around 4%.

    That said, how sustainable are these yields in a mining environment, where costs are rising and commodity prices are falling? Are these companies able to sustain their more »

  • Gold Dividends Unsafe

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 14, 2013 | Tickers: ABX, GG, NEM, AUY

    Gold miners are not known for their shareholder returns. In fact, miners are often criticized for not returning enough cash to shareholders, choosing instead to spend their income on expensive capital projects.

    That said, recently miners have changed course and are now offering dividends to shareholders but with some of these yields touching 4-5%, they are way above the market average.

    Can they afford it?

    Gold Dividends

    Company

    P/E more »

  • mREIT Share Prices are Falling but Do Their Dividends Fill the Gap?

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 13, 2013 | Tickers: AGNC, NLY, CIM, TWO

    A combination of falling dividend payouts and concerns about future Federal Reserve policy have hit the shares of highly levered mortgage REITs hard in recent months.

    This selling has been compounded in the last few weeks as the yield on US government debt has started to rise back up to realistic levels, which has spurred investors to dump mREIT stocks in favor of the relatively risk free government debt.

    Having more »

  • A Quick Rundown of Master Limited Partnerships

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 12, 2013 | Tickers: KMP, NMM, STON, TNH

    With the markets bouncing around all-time highs, many investors are now finding it hard to find stocks that offer a decent dividend yield.

    Master Limited Partnerships, or MLPs, offer some of the best yields on the market. Some offer mid double-digit payouts, while the rest of the market offers an average yield of around 2%.

    But how are MLP's able to achieve these high payouts?

    Well, it all comes more »

  • The Outlook for the Global Insurance Market Is Starting to Pick Up

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 12, 2013 | Tickers: AIG, GNW, PUK

    Editor's Note: The initial article incorrectly identifies Prudential plc as Prudential Financial. This version has been corrected and Motley Fool apologizes for the error.

    According to Munich RE, the primary insurance market is finally recovering from 2008 despite the slow economic recovery throughout the world.

    Within the insurance giants' short term insurance market outlook published this month, it was noted that the volume of primary insurance premiums written is more »

  • Why These Tech Companies Are Good Value Investments

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 12, 2013 | Tickers: AVX, GLW, SIMO

    Technology companies are usually associated with high valuations. Therefore it is a real surprise when tech companies start trading on valuations that could allow them to be considered as a prospective value investment.

    Currently, there are three companies in the tech sector that look appealing to me as value investments, but could it actually be worth investing?

    Firstly, there is Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: SIMO), a fabless (it does more »

  • A Rundown of 3 Oil Drillers

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 11, 2013 | Tickers: ATW, RDC, SDRL

    The oil services sector could be one of the cheapest sectors in the market right now. Many oil-service companies are now trading on earnings multiples less than half of the market average and two of the four oil and gas drillers in the S&P 500 are trading below the value of their assets.

    This presents an opportunity for investment; a drilling company that is trading for less than the more »

  • Equipment Companies are Increasingly Relying on Financing to Improve Returns

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 11, 2013 | Tickers: CAT, DE, F

    Lending money can be highly profitable, especially in today's environment of low rates of interest for the leader to borrow from. However, lending customers money to buy your own company's equipment can be even more lucrative; a win-win situation for the lender. It is no surprise then that many companies now have a finance division to both help boost sales and increase income through the lucrative money lending more »

  • Three Ultra-defensive Stocks for Your Portfolio

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 11, 2013 | Tickers: AWR, CLH, STON

    There is nothing wrong with having a defensive, low growth dog in your portfolio. However, there is something wrong if you do not have a defensive dog in your portfolio that provides a solid backbone with which to construct a portfolio of long-term, buy-and-hold style securities.

    The best place to find these solid defensive stocks is in industries that will always be in demand, in particular the ultra-defensive industries of more »

  • Do Some of the Lowest Yields in the S&P 500 Have Room to Grow?

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 10, 2013 | Tickers: C, PXD, PCP

    Dividend investing is easy. Investors just need to pick the companies with the largest payouts and the best dividend histories. However, picking stocks that have the potential for future dividend growth is much harder.

    The purpose of this piece is to study the cash flows of three companies in the S&P 500 that offer some of the lowest yields in the index to try and establish if investors could more »

  • Do These Low-Yielding Companies Have Room for Dividend Growth?

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 10, 2013 | Tickers: EQT, MA, NWSA

    Recently, I looked at three companies in the S&P 500 which offer shareholders some of the lowest dividend payouts in the index to try and establish if there was any possibility that these companies could increase the dividends that they currently offer to investors.

    The problem is that only one out of the three companies I reviewed originally actually had the potential to increase its payout.

    So, in an more »

  • 3 Well Capitalized Utilities That Look Undervalued

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 7, 2013 | Tickers: AT, ELP, NRG

    At the end of May, utility stocks were rapidly sold off following a multi-month rally as investors took profits and sought more cyclical opportunities in a rising market.

    But, after this pullback, could now be the time to buy?

    The majority of the utility sector still looks overvalued, as investors have been chasing valuations higher during the past few months and years in the hunt for yield. However, it appears more »

  • 3 Refiners With 3 Different Reasons for Investment

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 7, 2013 | Tickers: HFC, NTI, PSX

    Refiners were in demand with investors last yea.  As a low oil prices pushed profit margins wider, investors reaped the benefits through special dividends and rising share prices.

    Now the market has cooled down, and for the bulls it could be a good time to jump back in. But the question is, where to invest?

    An MLP with a high yield

    What is interesting about Northern Tier Energy (NYSE: NTImore »)

  • How Safe are the Three Largest Dividend Yields in the S&P 500?

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 6, 2013 | Tickers: CTL, FTR, WIN

    The benefits of dividend investing are well known.

    Companies with high dividend yields can offer both protection and support in any market environment. In a falling market solid dividends can reduce a portfolio's losses and in a rising market, such as today's, a strong yield can be used to improve performance and offset inflation while interest rates are low.

    The question is, can the largest dividend yields in more »

  • Three Companies That Face Show-Stopping Regulation

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 6, 2013 | Tickers: ISRG, LO, MNST

    Sell-offs spurred by worries over government regulation and legislation can present good buying opportunities for investors. They can also destroy companies and reduce investors holdings to zero.

    There are several companies currently facing what is potentially game-changing scrutiny by the FDA over their products; Lorillard (NYSE: LO), Monster Beverage (NASDAQ: MNST) and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG).

    So here is a quick overview of their situation and the trouble that could more »

  • Tobacco Sales do not Seem to be Slowing Down

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 5, 2013 | Tickers: MO, LO, PM, RAI

    Any investors who own tobacco stocks will have taken part in a debate about whether or not the global tobacco industry is in decline. This argument is brought up nearly every time I mention big tobacco as an investment, although there is very little evidence to support this conclusion.

    I am not a smoker, but I am an investor who likes to make money, and one of the best sectors more »

  • Stocks for the Dividend Investor, Part 4: Future Potential

    By Rupert Hargreaves - June 3, 2013 | Tickers: BKW, MA, V

    In part one of this series, I looked at two solid dividend stocks that would provide a decent backbone for any portfolio. In the second part, I looked at the high yield sector and in part three, I looked at two companies that offered the potential for capital growth as well as a strong dividend payment.

    In this final part, I am going to look at three companies that have more »

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