Over the past decades boring old insurance specialist Aflac (AFL) has done a remarkable job of enriching long-term income growth investors thanks to its impressive 34-year dividend growth streak. That’s courtesy of its strong, cash-rich business model, which has allowed it to grow its dividend by 14.6% annually over the past quarter century, resulting in annual total returns that easily beat the S&P 500’s. Of course past performance is no guarantee of future results, and recently Aflac has struggled to generate the kind of sales, earnings, cash flow, and dividend growth that investors have come to expect from it. However, many insu...
Genuine Parts Company (NYSE: GPC), a distributor of automotive replacement parts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Australasia, as well as industrial replacement parts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico through its Motion Industries subsidiary, business products in the U.S. and Canada through its S. P. Richards Company subsidiary and electrical and electronic components throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico through its EIS, Inc. subsidiary, announced today record sales and earnings for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017. Financial Highlights Sales: were UP 5% to $4.1 billion, a new record. >Automotive Group sales: were UP 4%, including a...
Another day, another record low for volatility gauges, with Bank of America’s MOVE Index (considered Treasury Market ‘VIX’) falling to an unprecedented 48.26. As Bloomberg notes, the slide back down in volatility comes as the Treasury term premium looks to be failing in its latest attempt to climb back above zero. So investors in the world’s biggest bond market don’t want to pay for protection against price swings and they don’t care about getting paid for time risk — that can only add to concerns expressed by commentators including the Federal Reserve that markets are dangerously complacent....
Bitcoin (BTC) came into existence in January 2009. It was not the first ‘cryptocurrecny’ and there are now an estimated 950 competitors, with new ICO’s ‘Initial Coin Offerings’ appearing almost daily. BTC’s closest rival in terms of coins in circulation is Ethereum (ETH). The chart below shows how these currencies % of total market capitalisations has waxed and waned:- Source: coinmarketcap.com I want to concentrate on BTC since it remains the market leader with a total circulation of $33bln (reference BTCUSD 2000) whilst the outstanding issuance of its nearest rival ETH is $16bln. Below is a four month chart of BTCUSD, its price...
On Tuesday, British pound move lower against the greenback, which resulted in an invalidation of the breakout above two important resistances. How did this negative development affect the technical picture of GBP/USD? EUR/USD Looking at the daily chart, we see that the situation in the very short term hasn’t changed much as EUR/USD remains in the blue consolidation not far from the May 2016 high of 1.1615 and the upper border of the brown rising trend channel. What’s next? Taking into account the fact that currency bulls were strong enough to push the exchange rate above the upper border of previous consolidations, it seems to us that we...
Income investors rely on utility stocks for steady dividends. Utilities have earned a strong reputation among income investors, and for good reason. Utilities are widely recognized for their ability to generate steady profits each year, regardless of the economic climate. With their reliable earnings, they consistently pay dividends each year. Many utility stocks have paid uninterrupted dividends for several decades on end, with annual dividend increases along the way. There are many utility stocks on the list of Dividend Achievers, which have raised their dividends for 10+ consecutive years. The other attractive aspect of utility stocks is...
There are currently two important items on the Fed’s wish list. The first is to restore interest rates to more normal levels, and the second is to unwind the Fed’s balance sheet, which has expanded since the great financial crisis, principally through quantitative easing (QE). Is this not just common sense? Maybe. It is one thing to wish, another to achieve. The Fed has demonstrated only one skill, and that is to ensure the quantity of money continually expands, yet they are now saying they will attempt to achieve the opposite, at least with base money, while increasing interest rates. Both these aims appear reasonable if they can be acco...
Actual industrial output has been far weaker than the regional Fed manufacturing reports and the ISM report for at least a year. Yesterday we heard from the Empire State region. Today the spotlight is on the Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey where new orders plunged. Econoday notes “cracks” in the survey. There finally may be cracks appearing in Philly Fed which has, since the election, been signaling break-out strength for the Mid-Atlantic manufacturing sector. The general conditions index looks solid at 19.5, still very strong though down from 27.6 in June and the least robust result since November. But details — which in t...
Since I’m eight, I’ve always been passionate by numbers. When I discover the world of finance, I knew exactly what I wanted to do in life: work around the financial market. I guess that one thing that captivates me is about how the stock market evolves over time. When you are at school, they teach us how the market is efficient and how it’s all a numbers game. Then, you get into the real life and you realize the market is driven by emotion. The worst part is that today, individual investors are not important enough to influence the market in a significant manner. The reality is that professional portfolio manager can get emotional too. ...