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Strategies & Market Trends : Dividend investing for retirement -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JimisJim who wrote (6463)	11/16/2010 2:59:24 PM
From: chowder	Respond to of 34328

>>> Also on the "to buy" list are ADP, CLX, GIS, UHT and NNN. <<< I'll be adding to ADP in the coming days. I have already added to PAYX. ... I'll be taking out a new position in NNN in the coming days as well. I have all the CLX and GIS I want for now, other than reinvesting dividends back into those companies. I haven't looked at UHT. Perhaps I'll sneak a peek. Funny how our positions are running parallel to each other.

To: JimisJim who wrote (6463)	11/16/2010 3:05:37 PM
From: chowder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34328

I just snuck a peek at UHT. A Health Care Reit. How bout that! I was planning on taking a new position in a HC Reit in the coming days. I was looking at HCN and HCP, but leaning towards HCN. I'll look into UHT a little more. Thanks for the idea.

To: JimisJim who wrote (6463)	11/17/2010 3:18:31 AM
From: Bocor	1 Recommendation Respond to of 34328

Margins matter. The more Clorox (NYSE: CLX) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why I check on my holdings' margins at least once a quarter. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, comparisons to sector peers and competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Clorox's competitive position could be. Here's the current margin snapshot for Clorox and some of its sector and industry peers and direct competitors. Company TTM Gross Margin TTM Operating Margin TTM Net Margin Clorox 44.7% 19.3% 12.0% Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 51.8% 20.3% 15.8% Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) 33.7% 15.0% 9.4% Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) 63.1% 10.8% 5.9% Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. TTM = trailing 12 months. Unfortunately, that table doesn't tell us much about where Clorox has been, or where it's going. A company with rising gross and operating margins often fuels its growth by increasing demand for its products. If it sells more units while keeping costs in check, its profitability increases. Conversely, a company with gross margins that inch downward over time is often losing out to competition, and possibly engaging in a race to the bottom on prices. If it can't make up for this problem by cutting costs -- and most companies can't -- then both the business and its shares face a decidedly bleak outlook. Of course, over the short term, the kind of economic shocks we recently experienced can drastically affect a company's profitability. That's why I like to look at five fiscal years' worth of margins, along with the results for the trailing 12 months (TTM), the last fiscal year, and last fiscal quarter (LFQ). You can't always reach a hard conclusion about your company's health, but you can better understand what to expect, and what to watch. Here's how the stats break down: •Over the past five years, gross margin peaked at 44.8% and averaged 42.9%. Operating margin peaked at 19.8% and averaged 18.1%. Net margin peaked at 10.9% and averaged 9.9%. •TTM gross margin is 44.7%, 180 basis points better than the five-year average. TTM operating margin is 19.3%, 120 basis points better than the five-year average. TTM net margin is 12.0%, 210 basis points better than the five-year average. With recent TTM operating margins exceeding historical averages, Clorox looks like it is doing fine fool.com