 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Featured MNV Articles:
| CAT Dividend Yield Pushes Past 2%By Dividend Channel Staff, Thursday, August 4, 3:07 PM ET
In trading on Thursday, shares of Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) were yielding above the 2% mark based on its quarterly dividend (annualized to $1.84), with the stock changing hands as low as $90.61 on the day. Dividends are particularly important for investors to consider, because historically speaking dividends have provided a considerable share of the stock market's total return. To illustrate, suppose for example you purchased shares of the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) back on 12/31/1998 — you would have paid $123.31 per share. Fast forward to 12/31/2010 and each share was worth $125.75 on that date, a mere $2.44 or 2% increase over all those years. But now consider that you collected a whopping $20.53 per share in dividends over the same period, increasing your return to 18.6%. Even with dividends reinvested, that only amounts to an average annual total return of about 1.4%; so by comparison collecting a yield above 2% would appear considerably attractive if that yield is sustainable. Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) is an S&P 500 company, giving it special status as one of the large-cap companies making up the S&P 500 Index.
In general, dividend amounts are not always predictable and tend to follow the ups and downs of profitability at each company. In the case of Caterpillar Inc., looking at the history chart for CAT below can help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue, and in turn whether it is a reasonable expectation to expect a 2% annual yield.
According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, CAT makes up 5.96% of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (AMEX:DIA) which is trading lower by about 2.7% on the day Thursday. See what other ETFs contain CAT » CAT operates in the Construction sector, among companies like MasTec Inc. (NYSE:MTZ) which is off about 11% today, and Toro Co. (NYSE:TTC) trading lower by about 2.7%. Below is a three month price history chart comparing the stock performance of CAT, versus MTZ and TTC.
Free Trial: ''ETF CHANNEL FLEXIBLE GROWTH INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO'' The ETF Channel Flexible Growth Investment Portfolio is designed to seek growth for investors — anywhere and everywhere. The key to the program is our portfolio strategy allows us complete flexibility in terms of asset allocation as there are no predetermined guidelines as to the level of stocks, bonds, cash, regions, countries, sectors, commodities, or even asset classes in the portfolio! In short, this is a completely flexible portfolio designed to follow the performance trail wherever it leads us.
Find the right mix of model portfolios today at PortfolioChannel.com
This Article's Word Cloud:
Below
Caterpillar
Channel
Dividends
NYSE
Thursday
about
above
always
amounts
annual
asset
chart
companies
company
consider
data
designed
dividend
dividends
each
escape
fillColor
follow
gridColor
have
history
important
investors
lower
other
over
performance
period
portfolio
return
share
shares
stock
stocks
that
total
trading
what
whether
which
with
would
years
yield
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Now Playing:
The Importance of Dividends
Start slideshow: