Tag Archives: Total Return

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is the Google Stock Rally Over for Now?

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By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool

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Each week, I endeavor to report the results of the Big Idea Portfolio, a collection of five tech stocks that I believe will crush the market over a three-year period. I’ve done it before; my last tussle with Mr. Market ended with me beating the index’s average return by 13.35%.

Real money was on the line then as it is now, which means any one of the five stocks you see below could cause me a lot of public embarrassment. This time, Google fell slightly in a big week for the market indexes. Facebook and Microsoft deserve most of the blame.

Google stock retreated about 80 basis points last week as thousands awaited Friday’s official release of Facebook Home for Android. That appears to have been an overreaction. As of Sunday, more than 3,000 had downloaded and rated the app at Google’s Play Store. Of those, nearly 1,600 give the app 1 out of 5 stars. Overall, they give it 2.4 stars.

“No widgets, kinda clunky, and pretty much just Facebook with access to your apps drawer. Meh, an unimpressive launcher compared to most others,” wrote reviewer Jeremy Noah, who called the app “good for Facebook-ophiles” after trying the app on his Samsung Galaxy S3.

The message? Facebook has much work to do before Home becomes a suitable substitute for Google’s existing Android interface. In the meantime, Microsoft has allied itself with 16 others to urge European regulators to take action against the search king for what it deems “predatory” efforts to control the market for mobile software and devices.

We don’t yet know how EU officials will respond to Mr. Softy’s urging, or Google’s own efforts to settle existing grievances. The resulting uncertainty appears to be weighing on Google stock.

What’s the Big Idea this week?
Elsewhere, a small move in Apple shares fell short of the market‘s overall rally, costing me  another 135 basis points in my three-year battle with Mr. Market. All four indexes reported strong gains.

This time, the Nasdaq led the way with with a 2.84% surge, followed by the S&P 500’s 2.29% rally, the Russell 2000’s 2.12% jump, and the Dow’s 2.06% gain, according to data supplied by The Wall Street Journal. Here’s a closer look at where I stood through Friday’s close:
 
Company Starting Price* Recent Price Total Return

Apple

$416.26**

$429.80

3.3%

Google

$650.09

$790.05

21.5%

Rackspace Hosting

$41.65

$48.40

16.2%

Riverbed Technology

$25.95

$14.60

(43.7%)

salesforce.com

$100.93

$169.52

67.9%

AVERAGE RETURN

—

—

13.04%

S&P 500 SPDR

$124.39**

$158.80

27.66%

DIFFERENCE

—

—

(14.62%)

Source: Yahoo! Finance.
* Tracking began at market close on Jan. 6, 2012.
** Adjusted for dividends and other returns of capital.

Notable newsmakers
Among the other tech stocks making news last week:

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

3 Solid Dividend Stocks for the Long Haul

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By Steve Symington, The Motley Fool

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Stable, dividend-paying stocks may not be as exciting as their more volatile non-dividend cousins, but there’s a reason world-class investors like Warren Buffett love them.

Over the long term, dividends are undoubtedly the lifeblood behind overall stock market returns. Take a look at the gains over the past decade for both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Index, with dividends (“Total Return“) and without them:

Source: ^SPXTR data by YCharts.

Of course, even without dividends, the indexes still turned in a respectable performance. However, the inclusion of dividends added a whopping 51% and 40% to the Dow and S&P 500’s returns over the past 10 years, respectively.

So which dividend stocks should you buy for the long haul? Here are three possibilities:

This ain’t Monopoly money
Despite trading near 52-week-highs, I’m convinced toy maker Hasbro has what it takes to keep shareholders happy for decades.

In addition to being the name behind such perennial hit games as Magic: The Gathering, Twister, Monopoly, and Battleship, Hasbro is also poised to benefit by creating merchandise for every blockbuster movie from entertainment giant Disney, so you can bet it was happy when Disney announced plans for multiple new Star Wars movies following its acquisition of Lucasfilm late last year.

In the meantime, Hasbro can look forward to renewed sales from next year’s new installment of the Transformers movie franchise, and long-term investors can rest easy collecting a solid 3.7% dividend.

Clean profits from a dirty business
If you’re looking for another durable long-term business, look no further than garbage disposal and recycling expert Waste Management .

As the owner of 283 active landfills, 17 waste-to-energy plants, 131 recycling plants, 95 landfill gas projects, and six independent power production plants, Waste Management is North America‘s largest recycling and waste services provider and boasts an enviable moat, which many investors believe is second only to Coca-Cola.

While the stock doesn’t look particularly cheap at nearly 22 times trailing earnings, its 3.8% dividend should help in the long run.

Last but not least, thanks to the initiation of its inaugural dividend late last year, I’m happy I can now include  in the list of my favorite dividend stocks. After all, the graphics chip specialist currently trades for less than 14 times trailing earnings and had a jaw-dropping $3.73 billion in cash on its balance sheet at the end of its most recent quarter. This, for those of you keeping track, represents nearly half NVIDIA‘s entire market capitalization.

NVIDIA has been incredibly busy lately, building a moat of its own as it strives to become a one-stop shop for all things graphics processing. In addition, its recently announced Tegra 4i is poised to give competing mobile chips from the likes of Qualcomm a run for their money. If NVIDIA can steal any meaningful market share from Qualcomm in the mobile segment alone, it’s a safe bet that patient, long-term investors will be richly rewarded as both the share price and dividend …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance