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Wed. Aug. 25, 2010

When To Sell A Dividend Stock *

As a long-term buy-and-hold investor, most of my evaluation efforts are aimed at determining when to buy a stock. Sometimes it is necessary to sell a stock and we need to be equally adept at identifying those times. I have stated on numerous occasions that I have one hard and fast sell rule for my individual dividend stocks: When an individual stock held as a dividend investment lowers its dividend, immediately sell it. However, there are other times it makes sense to sell. Consider these:
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Wed. Dec. 16, 2009

The 2010 Dividend Aristocrats *

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is the most prestigious list of dividend stocks. The Dividend Aristocrats index is designed to measure the performance of S&P 500 constituents that have followed a policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years. This index is a member of the S&P Dividend Aristocrats index series.


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Wed. Mar. 25, 2009

Early Warning Signs of a Dividend Cut *

It seems each week another dividend Aristocrat, Achiever or Champion cuts its dividend after increasing it for 10 or more years. In most cases the companies’ investors were not surprised because they saw the early warning signs that indicated a dividend cut was imminent.  Here are three signs that a company is heading toward a dividend cut:
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