Product Description

Beating the S&P with Dividends

Soaring stock prices, dot.com millionaires, and day traders are things of the past. The time has come for a safer and smarter way to build wealth. No matter what your investment objectives or risk outlook, Beating the S&P with Dividends can show you how to accomplish this.

Dividend-yielding stocks have made their long-awaited comeback, and in today's financial environment, they should be a part of your investment portfolio. But to make the most of dividend-yielding stocks, you need the detailed information that only Mergent--the preferred source for global business and financial information--can provide. In Beating the S&P with Dividends, Peter O'Shea and Jonathan Worrall reveal the strategies and techniques that Mergent professionals use to continually uncover these high-return/low-risk stocks, and explain how you can implement them in virtually any portfolio.

Beating the S&P with Dividends will show you how to:
* Select the best dividend-yielding stocks available
* Assemble a portfolio of top-performing dividend-yielding stocks
* Reap the rewards of REIT dividends
* Allocate your portfolio for the greatest tax efficiency
* Maximize your returns through direct investment


Dividends really do matter--now more than ever. Pick up Beating the S&P with Dividends and find out how investing in "dividend achievers," either directly or through a fund, can work for you.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #782533 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

From the Inside Flap
Dividends are back! Yet in reality, they never really went away. In fact, if you had invested in leading dividend-yielding stocks ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago, chances are you would have made more money than if you had invested solely in leading stocks found in the S&P 500 index.

Investing in stocks that pay dividends on a consistent basis, either directly or through a fund, has proven to be one of the safest and smartest ways to build an investment portfolio. But to make the most of dividend-yielding stocks, you need the detailed information that only Mergent—the preferred source for global business and financial information—can provide.

In Beating the S&P with Dividends, Peter O'Shea and Jonathan Worrall reveal the strategies and techniques that Mergent professionals use to continually uncover these high-return/low-risk stocks, and explain how you can implement them in virtually any portfolio. Explaining how to invest in high-quality stocks that not only provide outstanding dividend performance, but also benefit from lower tax rates on dividends, this comprehensive resource is ideal for any independent investor looking to make positive cash flow an important part of their investment strategy.

Filled with in-depth insight and practical advice, Beating the S&P with Dividends will show you how to:

• Analyze and select the best dividend-yielding stocks available
• Assemble a portfolio of top-performingdividend-yielding stocks
• Reap the rewards of REIT dividends
• Allocate your portfolio for the greatest tax efficiency
• Implement "dividend achiever" strategies and techniques through real-world cases and examples

In today's financial environment, investing in dividend-yielding stocks has never looked so good. These stocks generate regular cash returns that can be withdrawn or reinvested; bring a relatively high rate of return at a lower risk than most other types of financial vehicles; and now you even have governmental help in the form of reduced taxes on dividends. No matter what your investment objectives or risk outlook, Beating the S&P with Dividends will help boost the performance of your portfolio.

From the Back Cover
Beating the S&P with Dividends

Soaring stock prices, dot.com millionaires, and day traders are things of the past. The time has come for a safer and smarter way to build wealth. No matter what your investment objectives or risk outlook, Beating the S&P with Dividends can show you how to accomplish this.

Dividend-yielding stocks have made their long-awaited comeback, and in today's financial environment, they should be a part of your investment portfolio. But to make the most of dividend-yielding stocks, you need the detailed information that only Mergent—the preferred source for global business and financial information—can provide. In Beating the S&P with Dividends, Peter O'Shea and Jonathan Worrall reveal the strategies and techniques that Mergent professionals use to continually uncover these high-return/low-risk stocks, and explain how you can implement them in virtually any portfolio.

Beating the S&P with Dividends will show you how to:

• Select the best dividend-yielding stocks available
• Assemble a portfolio of top-performing dividend-yielding stocks
• Reap the rewards of REIT dividends
• Allocate your portfolio for the greatest tax efficiency
• Maximize your returns through direct investment

Dividends really do matter—now more than ever. Pick up Beating the S&P with Dividends and find out how investing in "dividend achievers," either directly or through a fund, can work for you.

About the Author
PETER O'SHEA has been an editor and journalist since the late 1980s. Peter is currently Managing Editor for one of Mergent, Inc.'s leading online products, Mergent's Industry Reports, which provide analysis on the current environment as well as financial data for leading companies in a range of industries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. He is currently based in Sydney, Australia.

Jonathan Worrall has held senior positions in the financial data and analysis systems and software industry since 1982. He has lived and worked in the U.K., Asia, Australia, and the U.S.A. serving the Global Investment Management and Broking community. He is currently Chairman of Ford Equity Research and is also Chief Executive Officer of Mergent, Inc., a global provider of equity and fixed income data and software. Jonathan lives in the Carolinas and is married with two children.

Mergent, Inc. (formerly the Financial Information Services division of Moody's), is the preferred source for global business and financial information, and has been collecting and delivering financial information since 1900. For over a century Mergent, Inc., has built its reputation as an innovative leader in supplying comprehensive, accurate data, along with easy-to-use information tools based on the latest in technology. www.mergent.com

Customer Reviews

Basic information well presented
If this is your first book on dividends and how they can help in improving total returns, this book will not disappoint you. However, if you are looking for any new ground-breaking research or novel trading/investing strategies, the book has very little new to offer. Most of the book will be educational for the new investor, despite most examples in the book are taken from IRS's website. Much of the book is also devoted to lists of companies that have been increasing dividends consistently...information that is mostly freely available. The book talks about an index focusing on dividend paying companies and shows how it has beaten the broad market in short and long terms. however, there is very little information on the composition of the index, how it is weighted and so on. SP and other indices clearly specify the composition and their weights. Overall, the book is good for a new investor, with good explanations on dividends, different ratios that can be used to evaluate a company, and so on. But it comes short of adding new material to the already crowded investment literature.

Babyboomers to Corporate America - Show Us the Cash
It makes sense that retiring baby boomers, who by most accounts are better at spending than saving, will want to supplement their retirement income with a stream of dividends from their stock portfolios. A shrinking number of traditional pension plans that guarantee an inflation adjusted income and a general anxiety about the adequacy of social security benefits will only heighten the need for additional income for future retirees. Happily current regulations favor most common stock dividends with a reduced tax rate. More companies appear to be returning profits to shareholders with dividend increases in this post-bubble period. Indeed companies that steadily increase their cash distributions may raise their credibility over companies that retain their profits and parse their definition of earnings.

BEATING THE S&P... is a good introduction to some names that could constitute a dividend-growth portfolio model. Almost half the text consists of various lists and company profiles. The Do It Yourself investor will find this information to be a good starting point with the obvious understanding that statistical data is constantly changing. Be aware that REIT distributions get no special tax rate from the IRS (clearly noted). This is also partially true of MLPs (master limited partnerships) which have attractive yields but annoying K-1 tax forms and potentially problematic issues when used in retirement accounts.

The authors are also promoting with this book Mergent Inc.'s various indexes which are based on companies that consistently raise their dividends. Some closed end funds that follow this strategy are mentioned. In any event their key point is that dividend producing portfolios tend to outperform pure growth portfolios and the popular S&P 500 Index over the long run. This is a 'get rich slowly' approach to portfolio design that has worked well since 2000 and has a demographic wind at its back that should provide ongoing momentum.

A simple way to profitably invest for the long term in a passive manner
This is a very good book for the buy-and-hold investor to read. Until I came accross the Mergent's list recently, I was quite skeptical about the buy and hold philosophy. Now I am convinced that a Mergent's list ETF such as PEY, DVY or a similar ETF is all one needs for care-free investment to give returns of about 12 or 13 percent or more over 10 years or more. Or, one can generate steady income and have modest capital appreciation too. Buying individual stocks from the list may not achieve the desired outcome.

The book may be further improved by explaining some points better.

If not convinced, read the book "Beating the Street by Peter Lynch and John Rothchild" to reassure you about Mergent's stretegy.