Warren Buffett's Targets Part I: Potential White Elephants Of The Guru Investor

Warren Buffett is one of the most trusted and popular investors on the market. He made from a dozen dollars over USD 58 billion. On this blog, I also cover the activities of the guru investor and publish his trades and thoughts.

There are several speculations on the market what Warren Buffett buys next. He has around USD 15 billion in cash, a number that is growing monthly. Some of Warren Buffett's criteria are:

- Market Capitalization from $15 Billion to $40 Billion

- Capital Expenditures / Net Fixed Assets > 10%

- 5-Year Average Growth in ROIC in Highest 50%

- P/E Ratio < Average Company Value in Home Market

- Return on Common Equity > 10%

- Excludes Banks, Brokerages, Asset Managers, Technology, Biotechnology Companies

By screening the market with the above mentioned criteria, there are popping out a few interesting stocks. Some are often discussed like General Mills or Hershey, W.W. Grainger or FedEx.

Big takeovers make sense for Warren Buffett, also when they are higher valuated. More important are the stable cash flows. The strategy is to buy stocks that have big brands and produce products. They buy commodities and create wonderful things for people all over the world.

5 picks that Warren Buffett would like to consider....

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) has a market capitalization of $30.78 billion. The company employs 41,000 people, generates revenue of $17.774 billion and has a net income of $1.793 billion. General Mills’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $3.443 billion. The EBITDA margin is 19.37 percent (the operating margin is 16.04 percent and the net profit margin 10.09 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 35.17 percent of General Mills’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 119.44 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 28.34 percent was realized by General Mills. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $2.69. Last fiscal year, General Mills paid $0.99 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 18.31, the P/S ratio is 1.73 and the P/B ratio is finally 4.73. The dividend yield amounts to 3.08 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.20.

Long-Term Stock Price Chart Of General Mills (GIS)

Long-Term Dividend Payment History of General Mills (GIS)

Long-Term Dividend Yield History of General Mills (GIS)

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) has a market capitalization of $21.45 billion. The company employs 12,100 people, generates revenue of $6.644 billion and has a net income of $660.93 million. Hershey’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $1.399 billion. The EBITDA margin is 21.07 percent (the operating margin is 16.72 percent and the net profit margin 9.95 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 40.10 percent of Hershey’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 183.93 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 69.79 percent was realized by Hershey. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $3.45. Last fiscal year, Hershey paid $1.56 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 27.80, the P/S ratio is 3.21 and the P/B ratio is finally 20.71. The dividend yield amounts to 2.02 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.21.

Long-Term Stock Price Chart Of Hershey (HSY)

Long-Term Dividend Payment History of Hershey (HSY)

Long-Term Dividend Yield History of Hershey (HSY)

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) has a market capitalization of $17.65 billion. The company employs 21,100 people, generates revenue of $8.950 billion and has a net income of $698.85 million. W.W. Grainger’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $1.357 billion. The EBITDA margin is 15.16 percent (the operating margin is 12.64 percent and the net profit margin 7.81 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 11.26 percent of W.W. Grainger’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 18.67 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 23.97 percent was realized by W.W. Grainger. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $11.25. Last fiscal year, W.W. Grainger paid $3.06 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 22.61, the P/S ratio is 1.97 and the P/B ratio is finally 5.84. The dividend yield amounts to 1.46 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.92.

Long-Term Stock Price Chart Of W.W. Grainger (GWW)

Long-Term Dividend Payment History of W.W. Grainger (GWW)

Long-Term Dividend Yield History of W.W. Grainger (GWW)

CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) has a market capitalization of $37.00 billion. The company employs 20,930 people, generates revenue of $14.089 billion and has a net income of $1.669 billion. CBS Corporation’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $3.594 billion. The EBITDA margin is 25.51 percent (the operating margin is 20.95 percent and the net profit margin 11.85 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 22.38 percent of CBS Corporation’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 57.98 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 16.24 percent was realized by CBS Corporation. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $2.94. Last fiscal year, CBS Corporation paid $0.44 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 20.96, the P/S ratio is 2.63 and the P/B ratio is finally 3.80. The dividend yield amounts to 0.78 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 2.27.

Long-Term Stock Price Chart Of CBS Corporation (CBS)

Long-Term Dividend Payment History of CBS Corporation (CBS)

Long-Term Dividend Yield History of CBS Corporation (CBS)

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) has a market capitalization of $44.34 billion. The company employs 112,000 people, generates revenue of $44.287 billion and has a net income of $1.561 billion. FedEx’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $5.538 billion. The EBITDA margin is 12.50 percent (the operating margin is 5.76 percent and the net profit margin 3.52 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 8.91 percent of FedEx’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 17.19 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 9.72 percent was realized by FedEx. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $5.19. Last fiscal year, FedEx paid $0.56 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 27.37, the P/S ratio is 1.00 and the P/B ratio is finally 2.60. The dividend yield amounts to 0.42 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 1.50.

Long-Term Stock Price Chart Of FedEx (FDX)

Long-Term Dividend Payment History of FedEx (FDX)

Long-Term Dividend Yield History of FedEx (FDX)

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*I am long GIS. I receive no compensation to write about these specific stocks, sector or theme. I don't plan to increase or decrease positions or obligations within the next 72 hours.

For the other stocks: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I receive no compensation to write about any specific stock, sector or theme.

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11 Great Dividend Growth Stocks With Low Debt

Great dividend paying stocks with low debt ratios originally published at long-term-investments.blogspot.com. Dividend growth is wonderful but it does not mean a good return in the end. Out there are also stocks that hiked dividends over 10 years or more but they delivered only a 3 percent annual return of which 2 percent are explainable to cash dividend payments.

A good dividend growth stocks is a pick that delivers adequate returns far above the expected inflation rate. Nobody knows which stock can give you this but one critical factor is the amount of debt. A low leveraged stock has more possibilities to grow in an easy way.

Today I would like to share some great dividend stocks with low debt ratios. Great dividend stocks are those stocks that have delivered good growth and high returns combined in the past.

I used a restriction of a debt to equity ratio of 0.5 percent. Eleven stocks fulfilled my criteria of which six are recommended to buy.

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20 Dividend Champions With Highest Cash Distribution Growth Rates Over The Short-Run

Dividend Champions with the fastest short-term dividend growth originally published at long-term-investments.blogspot.com. A growing dividend is normally a good sign for investors. The corporate shows two characteristics to their owners: Strength and power of a healthy and growing business.

The rate of dividend growth is in this context a great measure to judge the success of a business. A company with a 20 percent dividend growth rate must have a stronger growing underlying business than a corporate with a 3 percent growing dividend. The future looks rosy and the management team is more optimistic to share profits of the company at a high level.

Firms that hike dividends faster than inflation, deliver accelerated growth or maintain growth at a high level, can pass returns to shareholders.

Today I would like to present you the 20 fastest growing dividends from the Dividend Champions list over the short-run. 105 companies are part of the list which is a compilation of stocks with over 25 years of consecutive dividend growth.

And the winners are: Services and industrials. No other sectors have more constituents on the list. It was the best place to be in the past to gain a higher dividend. This is not equal to return or profits.

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20 Dividend Champions With Highest YTD Performance And Still Low P/E’s

Dividend Champions with highest performance year-to-date originally published at "long-term-investments.blogspot.com". Around 104 stocks from the American capital market have raised their dividend payments over a period of more than 25 years without a break. They are real dividend champions. Today I like to show you which of them have realized the highest performance since the start of the year. You can also find a detail stock picture of the Dividend Champions with the cheapest price-to-earnings ratio.

The top 20 performing dividend Champions had a return between 20.16 percent and 37.25 percent. It’s a very mixed picture of stocks.

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Ex-Dividend Stocks: Best Dividend Paying Shares On May 09, 2013

The best yielding and biggest ex-dividend stocks researched by ”long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates.

The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

A full list of all stocks with payment dates can be found here: Ex-Dividend Stocks May 09, 2013. In total, 11 stocks and preferred shares go ex dividend - of which one yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 3.11%.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding, higher capitalized ex-dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
Alliance Holdings GP, L.P.	AHGP	3.54B	18.05	7.93	1.74	5.00%
Enterprise Bancorp Inc.	EBTC	160.49M	12.58	1.12	2.33	2.81%
Exxon Mobil Corporation	XOM	405.29B	9.41	2.47	0.87	2.76%
Apple Inc.	AAPL	430.52B	10.95	3.18	2.55	2.66%
Rockwell Automation Inc.	ROK	12.28B	17.27	6.08	1.97	2.37%
Simplicity Bancorp, Inc.	SMPL	125.86M	19.64	0.82	3.19	2.14%
U.S. Global Investors, Inc.	GROW	44.15M	71.25	1.18	2.14	2.11%
National Instruments Corporation	NATI	3.44B	38.15	3.58	2.94	2.01%
Southern National Bancorp of Virginia	SONA	120.07M	18.18	1.17	3.20	1.93%
Rockwell Collins Inc.	COL	8.87B	15.16	7.93	1.90	1.84%
W.W. Grainger, Inc.	GWW	17.60B	25.60	5.63	1.95	1.47%

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50 Shares With Fastest Dividend Growth In April 2013

Shares with highest dividend growth researched by Dividend Yield – Stock, Capital, Investment. Only a growing business is a good business; that’s a major rule in economics. But growth is not all. Investors want a part of the company’s success; they want growing dividends at high rates.

Sometimes, predatory investors and some activists try to steal some of the company’s assets and force a dividend payment which is much higher than the current earnings. Those activities are bad for the stock price.

Good dividend hikes are such ones that are in-line with a healthy growing operational business. They reflect a solid growing business with a trustful management who wants to share the company’s success with the ownership.

It’s easy to discover good and bad dividend growth. All you need is to look at the earnings developments and debt changes.

Today I run my screen of the 50 fastest dividend growers from the recent month. Below the results are again some pretty good stocks with very good growth rates. All stocks have a double-digit growth rate. The average dividend growth of the 50 best stocks amounts to 73.26 percent. The average yield is still at 3.77 percent.

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89 Stocks Boosted Their Dividends To New Levels

Stocks with dividend hikes from last week originally published at “long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. The overall dividend growth continued and ended in an old strength last week.

In total 89 stocks increased their dividend payments of which 30 are High-Yields and 54 are currently recommended to buy. The average dividend growth amounts to 21.05 percent.

Yields come down as a result of the strong stock price gains. The current hikes don’t change the situation because they grow much lower compared to the valuation. Quality dividend stocks getting rare and better priced. That’s my main recognition over the recent months.

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20 Dividend Champions With Highest 10-Year Dividend Growth Rates

Dividend Champions with fastest 10 year dividend growth originally published at "long-term-investments.blogspot.com". Dividend Champions are popular because of their long payment history. They increased dividend payments each year over a period of more than 25 years without an interruption.

In my view it’s for every high-quality stock possible to manage a 50 year dividend growth. The only requirement is a stable growing business with a high degree of self-financing. So, the only big difference between the longest dividend growers is the rate of the dividend growth. There are fast growing stocks and slow hikers. Which should you buy?

If you want to make money with dividend growth stocks, you need fast growth but it makes only sense to purchase them for an acceptable price. What return will you make when you pay a price that is 100 times of the expected earnings?

Today, I like to screen the investment category “Dividend Champions” by stocks with the highest rate of dividend growth over the recent 10 years. Linked is a full list of the top 20 champs with a double-digit dividend growth. Fourteen of the results have a current buy or better rating.

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