Gold Stock Indicator: April 17, 2015

Gold and gold stocks parted ways in the last week.  Gold was increased slightly while gold stocks declined –1.72%.

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Coppock Curve: March 2015

The Coppock Curve is one of the technical indicators that we focus on for long-term buy signals for the stock market. The Coppock Curve is only useful as a BUY indicator when the chart goes from positive territory to the negative territory then turns decidedly upward. As previously indicated, the Coppock Curve does not provide SELL signals in any way.

Once the signal turns upward (while in the negative territory), investors should consider buying stocks at the beginning of the month. Our last “buy” indication came at the end of April 2009. Anyone who purchased the Dow Jones Industrial ETF (DIA) on the first trading day of May 2009, they would have gained +109% in the process (based on the closing price of March 2015).

While the curve remain positive, the direction and the slope is negative.  We would get excited if and when this indicator reach the negative zone.  We will certainly update our readers when that time comes.

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Canadian Dividend Watch List: April 15, 2015

Performance Review

Below is the 1-year performance of the Canadian dividend stocks from our April 18, 2014 watch list.

symbol name 2014 2015 % chg
EMP-A.TO Empire Company Limited 65.30 91.84 40.64%
D-UN.TO Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust 29.60 27.75 -6.25%
TA.TO TransAlta Corp. 13.13 11.95 -8.99%
CAR-UN.TO Canadian Apartment Properties REIT 21.37 29.16 36.45%
CUF-UN.TO Cominar REIT 19.01 19.33 1.68%
CJR-B.TO Corus Entertainment Inc. 24.31 17.07 -29.78%
FTS.TO Fortis Inc. 32.01 39.15 22.31%
NWC.TO North West Company Inc. 24.25 25.52 5.24%
FCR.TO First Capital Realty Inc. 17.92 19.74 10.16%

The performance of the entire list averaged +7.94% compared to the +6.55% gain in the Toronto Stock Exchange index.  The top five stocks on the list averaged a gain of +12.71% and are charted below.  Empire Co. & Canadian Apartment carried the list while Corus Entertainment suffered the largest decline in the last year.

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Canadian Dividend Watch List

Below is the April 2015 watch list of stocks based on the closing price of April 15, 2015.

U.S. Dividend Watch List: April 10, 2015

Below are 57 companies with strong dividend record and is trading near its yearly low. It's important to consider the price which one begin to accumulate these dividend paying companies. Continue reading

Nasdaq 100 Watch List: April 10, 2015

Performance Review

Below is the performance of the stocks from the April 11, 2014 Nasdaq 100 watch list compared to the Nasdaq 100 Index gain of +28.29%.  The entire list gained +23.49% while the top five stocks gained +31.76%.

Symbol Name 2014 2015 % chg
SHLD Sears Holdings 32.62 42.93 31.61%
BBBY Bed Bath & Beyond 63.72 73.43 15.24%
CTRX Catamaran Corp. 38.89 59.61 53.28%
VRSK Verisk Analytics, Inc. 56.55 72.86 28.84%
SRCL Stericycle, Inc. 109.33 141.93 29.82%
SIRI Sirius XM Holdings Inc. 3.16 3.95 25.00%
CTXS Citrix Systems, Inc. 54.56 63.8 16.94%
DISCA Discovery Comm. 39.69 33.04 -16.75%
SPLS Staples, Inc. 11.83 16.72 41.34%
MAT Mattel, Inc. 37.82 24.23 -35.93%
COST Costco Wholesale 112.08 149.63 33.50%
CHRW CH Robinson Worldwide 54.87 72.06 31.33%
DLTR Dollar Tree, Inc. 50.74 82.87 63.32%
LBTYA Liberty Global plc 38.56 52.55 36.28%
NTAP NetApp, Inc. 35.97 35.47 -1.39%

The actual change versus the analyst estimated change is represented below.

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Worth noting is that of the top five stocks expected to outperform, none of the stocks exceeded the analyst expectations.  Alternatively, of the five stocks to perform the worst, four of the five stocks substantially out performed the analyst expectations.

Nasdaq Watch List

Below are the Nasdaq 100 companies that are on our radar.

Gold Stock Indicator: April 10, 2015

In the past week, gold has declined less that –1% while the gold and silver stock index has declined by –1.72%.

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The Gold Stock Indicator nudged slightly higher in the last week.  However, the long term perspective outlines the relative level of the indicator.

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Nasdaq 100 Watch List: March 27, 2015

Performance Review

Below is the performance of the nine stocks from our March 14, 2014 Nasdaq 100 watch list compared to the performance of the Nasdaq 100 Index gain of +20.50% over the last year.

symbol Name 2014 2015 % chg
CTSH Cognizant Technology Solutions 50.25 63 25.37%
CHRW CH Robinson Worldwide Inc. 51.14 73.03 42.80%
SYMC Symantec Corporation 20.16 23.35 15.82%
SPLS Staples, Inc. 11.3 16.11 42.57%
CTRX Catamaran Corporation 45.87 48.32 5.34%
MAT Mattel, Inc. 37.28 22.61 -39.35%
CSCO Cisco Systems, Inc. 21.35 27.13 27.07%
average 17.09%

The listed stocks only averaged gains of +17.09% in the last year.  However, the top five stocks averaged gains of +26.38%.  The two top performing stocks, CH Robinson Worldwide and Staples, were highlighted as being of interest to as the time (we bought shares of CHRW).  Of CHRW, we said the following:

“According to Edson Gould’s Altimeter, Robinson Worldwide is trading at an equivalent price to the 2009 low.”

The Altimeter appeared to reflect the fact that the stock was reasonably valued.  CHRW was up as much as +50% in the last year.

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Regarding Staples (SPLS), we said:

“After bottoming in the last half of 2012, Staples increased by +52% before collapsing to the current level.  Dow Theory suggests that this is a classic retest of the prior lows.”

Since the March 2014 posting, Staples (SPLS) has increased as much as +68%.

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Nasdaq 100 Watch List

U.S. Dividend Watch List: March 27, 2015

Watch List Performance Review

In our ongoing review of the NLO Dividend Watch List, we have taken the top five stocks on our list from March 28, 2014 and have checked the performance one year later. The top five companies on that list can be seen in the table below.

Symbol Name 2013 Price 2014 Price % change
FDO Family Dollar Stores 57.76 79.45 37.6%
CHRW C.H. Robinson Worldwide 50.89 73.03 43.5%
ED Consolidated Edison 53.17 59.80 12.5%
ERIE Erie Indemnity Company 68.57 86.39 26.0%
BMS Bemis Co Inc 38.34 46.17 20.4%
      Average 28.0%
         
DJI Dow Jones Industrial 16,323.06 17,712.66 8.5%
SPX S&P 500 1,857.62 2,061.02 10.9%

Our top five did amazingly well and outperformed the market by +18%. The average gain for the top five stocks was +28%. Family Dollar (FDO) gained an amazing +37.6% in one year. This is after a fund manager, Andy Matthes of Teton Valley Fund, suggested shorting the stock (found here). The biggest pop came after Dollar General (DG) bid for Family Dollar but that bid was rejected.

The best performer was C.H. Robinson (CHRW) which nearly gained +50%. The logistic broker may have benefited from the drop in oil. Oil has fallen -52% while C.H. Robinson rose +43%.

U.S Dividend Watch List: March 27, 2015

The foundation of our investment strategy is to invest in companies that pay consistent stream of dividends with a history of payout increases. The book that help set the stage for this process was Dividends Don't Lie: Finding Value in Blue-Chip Stocks. With the stage set, our full list consists of 72 companies and 20 companies are trading at or near the low. Continue reading

Gold Stock Indicator: March 27, 2015

Since our last posting on March 13, 2015, gold (as represented by the SPDR Gold Shares) has increased by +3.84% while the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Stock Index has increased by +3.40%.

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Transaction Alert

On March 25, 2015, we executed the following transactions:

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U.S. Dividend Watch List: March 20, 2014

The market roared back this week and pushed the S&P 500 above the 2,100 mark once again. The Nasdaq also closed the week above 5,000. However, the energy market continued to be in turmoil. Light sweet crude closed the week at $46.45 thus you will likely see many energy and industrial companies on our watch list. All-in-all, there are 54 companies that are on our watch list this week. Continue reading

Canadian Dividend Watch List: March 2015

Below is the performance of the stocks found on our March 2014 watch list:

symbol 2015 2014 % chg
TLM.TO Talisman Energy Inc. 9.55 10.86 -12.06%
FTS.TO Fortis Inc. 38.93 31.28 24.46%
TA.TO TransAlta Corp. 11.77 12.68 -7.18%
FCR.TO First Capital Realty Inc. 19.89 17.71 12.31%
CWT-UN.TO Calloway REIT 29.88 25.8 15.81%
CAR-UN.TO Canadian Apartment Properties REIT 28.4 20.8 36.54%
EMP-A.TO Empire Company Limited 90.77 65.84 37.86%
CJR-B.TO Corus Entertainment Inc. 18.41 24.24 -24.05%
BNS.TO The Bank of Nova Scotia 63.46 64.35 -1.38%
D-UN.TO Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust 26.14 28.5 -8.28%
CUF-UN.TO Cominar REIT 19.3 18.21 5.99%
LB.TO Laurentian Bank of Canada 48.3 45.73 5.62%

The chart below shows how the analyst estimates in blue varied compared to the actual performance in red after a year.

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As is frequently the case, the analyst estimates did not quite match the actual performance with the exception of CWT-UN.TO, CAR-UN.TO and EMP-A.TO.

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Gold Stock Indicator: March 13, 2015

Gold declined –1.37% while the index for gold stocks declined by –3.49% in the past week.  The closing numbers for gold stocks would be considered deceptive since the decline was much worse earlier in the week when the decline for the index was as much as –8%.

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U.S. Dividend Watch List: March 6, 2015

The large market decline on Friday brought the Dow Jones Industrial average below 18,000 and the Nasdaq below 5,000. The key data point was from the Federal Reserve meeting and a sign that interest rate hike could come sooner rather than later. Even though the jobs report came out stronger-than-expected, the expectation that rate could rise as soon as June took the market by surprise. With that pull back, our watch list expanded to include 74 companies we will highlight the 25 companies which are at or near its 52-week low. Continue reading

Analyst Estimate: DJ Utility Average March 2015

Below are the price projections of the components to the Dow-Jones Utility Index based on analyst earnings estimates as of March 8, 2015.  These estimates project the price change for the respective stocks in the next 12 months.

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