I mostly do index funds, but I do own a few individual names. For me to own an individual stock, it’s got to have an outsized opportunity. If it’s just a value stock or a dividend stock, well, I figure my index funds own those names to a sufficient degree. Why own them individually? As […]
Stocks
Why Netflix stock (NFLX) is heading over $600
Back in late 2018, I wrote a 15 page report on why Netflix stock was a great buy and was heading much higher. While most of what is in that report is still valid, I find the end of the report the most interesting to look back on. In the end of the report, I […]
Titan Invest: Why you should consider creating an account today
Titan Invest is a company that jumped into the roboadvisor offering world albeit with a slightly different twist than what most consider to be a typical roboadvisor offering. I joined Titan Invest in 2020 mostly out of curiosity. I’m a bit of a stock market junkie and found the clean design, marketing and details of […]
Disney Dividend: Analysis, amount and payout schedule
Disney (DIS) investors have long praised the Disney dividend that is paid on a semi-annual basis for shareholders, but have recent moves by the media and entertainment conglomerate put the Disney dividend in a more “back seat” position? As Disney positions itself for the next era of media and entertainment consumption, the company has made […]
Apple Dividend: Analysis, amount and payout schedule
The Apple dividend is a relatively minor part of being a shareholder in Apple (AAPL), one of the world’s largest company. The company has documented incredible growth over the last decade, fueled mostly by its iPhone business, and the company continues to find ways to deliver value to shareholders. While the Apple dividend is just […]
Walmart (WMT) Dividend: Analysis, amount and payout schedule
For decades, Walmart (WMT) has been a widely owned stock delivering stellar returns to investors in the form of capital appreciation and dividend payouts. The Walmart dividend has been the focus and a main component of return for shareholders for decades. Walmart is the largest retailer in the world. The company recorded $524 billion in […]
High yield dividend stocks: Performance and their contribution to diversified portfolios
Dividend yields in the stratosphere grab our attention. For example, MPLX’s (MPLX) recent yield was 16% and Energy Transfer’s (ET) was 21%. With the 10-year S&P 500 Index average dividend yield around 2.35% and the 10-year Treasury yield less than 4% for the same period (and less than 1% in the last year), high yield […]
AT&T Dividend: Analysis, amount and payout schedule
AT&T investors have long favored the AT&T dividend for its continuous and regular payments. But recent moves and stock performance have made some investors question the future of the AT&T dividend. AT&T (T) is a major topic in the dividend investing community along with the Disney dividend and XOM dividend. In this article, we will […]
Investing rules for buying stocks: systematic buying vs. market timing
In our series of investing rules articles, we last talked about putting parameters around our investing to mitigate single stock risk and stock picking risk through the use of maximum allocations and balancing between index funds and single stocks. Today we’re going to continue discussing this topic as we look at when we buy stocks. […]
Investing rules for buying individual stocks
For our consideration today, let’s group all investors into two categories. Those who contribute money into investments through nothing but an automated contribution system (often taking the form of a 401(k) type plan) and those who contribute money on a non-systematic basis and without a set schedule. Now, it’s worth noting that some investors fall […]
XOM Dividend: Exxon Mobil dividend dates, history and projections
Exxon Mobil is one of the largest companies in the United States and an extremely important company in the energy sector. For investors, the XOM dividend has long been a stalwart of the investment thesis in owning shares of this company. While the XOM dividend has been a long-term consistent and reliable dividend, 2020 has […]
Netflix and the coronavirus
Netflix delivered its latest quarterly announcement and it was a doozy. Netflix smashed expectations by adding nearly 16 million new paid subscribers. While management acknowledged that they benefitted from the stay-at-home dynamics currently in place with the coronavirus and that subscriber adds were likely pulled forward from future quarters, this is hardly a bad thing. […]
Disney Plus Subscribers: Subscriber count history for Disney’s streaming service
Ever since Disney announced its Disney+ service in 2019, projecting, estimating and tracking Disney Plus subscribers has been an obsession for much of the media and Disney analysts. Despite a major cable business (anchored by ESPN) in a secular decline, Disney leadership was able to successfully pivot to the world of on-demand, streaming platforms with […]
Why Disney+ crossing the 50,000,000 subscriber threshold in five months matters
Disney announced this week that its new streaming service of Disney+ has crossed 50 million paid subscribers just five short months after launching. While obviously helped by the sheltering-at-home of millions of people around the world during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s still an astonishing success. Note that Disney previously mentioned that they would not provide […]
Updated ESPN Subscribers and ESPN Revenue, Explained
ESPN subscriber counts and ESPN revenue numbers that are associated with ESPN subscribers are some of the most watched metrics in all of the media industry. Why are these numbers so dissected and discussed? There are several reasons. First, ESPN finds itself at the intersection of many very large and interesting trends in media. We’ll […]
Netflix content spend, explained
For the investing community, the Netflix content spend is one of the most talked about items with respect to the bull case and bear case for investing in Netflix stock (NFLX). But few truly understand the Netflix content spend, why it’s important for the business, and what elements of the spend we should be truly […]
The best stocks for 2020 and beyond after the coronavirus crash
Every year you’ll see many best stocks to buy type lists, and certainly, a few months ago there were plenty of articles giving you the best stocks for 2020 to buy. But in just a few short months everything has changed. We have a global pandemic and stocks markets are down over 30% in just […]
Netflix vs. Disney: Comparing the streaming platforms and the stock in 2020 and beyond
The Netflix vs. Disney conversation entered a new phase as 2020 got underway. Both streaming services (Netflix and Disney+) were launched and widely used in the United States. With the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic shutdown now in effect, 2020 is something else altogether now. So, how should we look at Netflix vs. Disney in […]
Stocks to buy for the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and stock market crash
Today, let’s talk about winners and losers from the coronavirus epidemic. Prior to getting into some fun speculation, let’s quickly remark that in a general sense, we’re all losers. People are sick, some have died, and the economic damage to many has been real. We’re in no way trivializing the very real, troublesome elements of […]
The 2020 stock market crash: Timeline, what caused it and more
The 2020 stock market crash was related to the coronavirus pandemic that spread from China in late December and early January to much of the world in February and March. In order to mitigate the spread of the virus, large parts of the economy were shut down especially in travel related industries. This led to […]
How low can the stock market go?
When market crashes occur, the question of how low can the stock market go is a common one. Investors are scared and want to try and get a decent grasp on what the extent of losses can be. It’s unnerving to think about the wealth destruction occurring, and investors will continually ask in response how […]
Market crash notebook, Vol. 1
To document the market crash as it materializes, I’m writing random thoughts and observations in notebook format. Hopefully this will be useful in the years ahead to look back and my thoughts during the actual crash. Big picture thoughts: It’s just incredible how quick moves lower can be. We’ve essentially moved 30% off the highs […]
Ford Dividend: Analysis, amount and payout schedule
The Ford dividend is a maybe component of why investors and shareholders buy and hold Ford (F) stock. In this article, we’ll look at every aspect of the Ford dividend including its sustainability, how often it’s paid, how much is paid out on a regular basis and more. We’ll also take a look at dividend […]
How to evaluate a stock
As investors, learning how to evaluate a stock is extremely important. Proper evaluation of a stock means attempting to value its current and future earnings, examine its place in its industry, the competitive environment around the company and also external stock market conditions. When evaluating an investment, it really comes down to analyzing the future […]
5 keys to Disney’s streaming strategy
Disney’s streaming strategy is perhaps one of the most talked about pivots and moves in recent years of all large American companies. There are many reasons for this. First, Disney is a beloved brand and owns many other beloved brands that touch consumers in many ways. Second, with the rise of Netflix and the decline […]
AT&T faces many challenges ahead of its launch into streaming
As AT&T plans to launch its streaming service in 2020, the New York Times is reporting that the potential price of the service is proving to be quite a snag as the company attempts to put the details into place for its service. The source of the problem is HBO, which has seven million online […]
5 stock market indicators you should be following
If you turn on CNBC, typically within a few minutes you’ll hear something along the lines of “The Dow is up 100.” But is what the Dow did today really one of the main stock market indicators that you should be monitoring if you want to be a successful investor? Also, recent history shows us […]
Is Roku’s business model ideal in the next era of streaming wars?
One of the most rapidly growing trends across today’s consumer landscape is the growth of streaming video, and the Roku business model might be uniquely positioned to continue to take advantage of this trend. The number of people ditching traditional cable and other Pay TV services for streaming services is at all-time highs and compounding. […]
ESPN remains quite profitable for Disney
Perhaps no media brand has been beaten up by the press and by consumers in recent years more than ESPN. The poster child of the pay-TV model, ESPN has reaped massive carriage fees and delivered incredible profits to Disney in recent decades. Since, ESPN was the model for pay TV profit extraction, it also was […]
CBS eyes Starz as media consolidation continues
With tech behemoths like Amazon, Apple and Netflix investing billions into direct-to-consumer media businesses, the landscape for traditional media companies continues to shift at an ever-increasing pace. M&A activity (e.g. Disney/Fox, AT&T/Time Warner) continues to mark an industry facing major disruption by well funded, powerful new entrants. As reports surface of CBS eyeing an acquisition […]
Why the shift to streaming is my favorite trend, and why I’m long Netflix (NFLX)
As with any article which discusses stock-picking, I want to give my overall investing disclaimer. So, here it is… Investing Disclaimer: I think marketing timing and picking stocks is very difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. I do very little (almost none) trading in short time horizons. Roughly 80% of my portfolio is in a few, […]