Month: November 2020

Stocks Going Ex Dividend in December 2020

The following is a short list of some of the many stocks going ex dividend during the next month.

Many traders and investors use the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the strategy of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend.

TOP DIVIDEND STOCKS

This technique generally works in bull markets and flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the strategy during bear markets. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can’t sell the stock until after the ex date.

The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and many with yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the periodic dividend amount.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) 12/1/2020 10.00 0.72%
Nike, Inc. (NKE) 12/4/2020 0.275 0.82%
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc (DKS) 12/10/2020 0.313 2.10%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) 12/10/2020 0.54 1.42%
Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY) 12/14/2020 0.55 1.95%
ADT Inc. (ADT) 12/18/2020 0.035 1.75%
Portland General Electric Company (POR) 12/24/2020 0.407 3.83%
Xerox Holdings Corporation (XRX) 12/30/2020 0.25 4.31%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found HERE . (If you have been to the page before, and the latest link doesn’t show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists HERE . Most of the lists are free.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company’s books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

TOP DIVIDEND STOCKS

Don’t forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written; affiliate links.

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The Money Plot: A History of Currency’s Power to Enchant, Control, and Manipulate

by Fred Fuld III

As a financial historian, the book, The Money Plot: A History of Currency’s Power to Enchant, Control, and Manipulate by Frederick Kaufman, is right up my alley. This is an engrossing treatise on the history of money, but not just the facts about money, but the psychology behind it.

The author covers the very beginning of currency with ostrich eggs, then the cowrie shells which were the world’s first global reserve currency, all the way up to cryptocurrency. Have you heard of the CannabisCoin crypto for marijuana or Dentcoin crypto for dentists?

Chapter 2, called The Trophy Wife, contains the somewhat disturbing yet extremely fascinating details about women as money. Kaufman even mentions that females were advertised for sale on Instagram as recently as last year.

There is a lot of history about investments and the stock market, especially in Chapter 10, The End of Money.

If you have any interest in money at all, and you are looking for a great read during the holidays or even a nice gift, I highly recommend  The Money Plot.

 

 

 

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Top Tax Selling Stocks Selling Below Cash per Share

by Fred Fuld III

A tax selling stock is a stock that is currently selling for a low price but was trading at much higher levels earlier in the year.

What is Tax Harvesting?

As the year-end approaches, many investors use the strategy called tax harvesting , which is selling stocks the have tanked to offset any gains that may have been established sometime during the year.

With strong selling, the price of stocks that have had big drops tends to fall far more than what would normally take place during the rest of the year.

So traders and investors are on the lookout for stocks that are heavily hit, hoping for a little (or big) bounce in January, once the tax selling is over.

What is Cash per Share?

But if you can find a stock that is selling below cash per share, you have a double bonus. The cash per share is the amount of cash the company has divided by the number of shares.

So if you are looking for these types of stocks, see below for a selection of some that have dropped by over 50% year-to-date. Most have low market capitalizations so they should be considered speculative. However, all of these stocks are selling below cash per share.

What is the Price to Book Ratio?

In addition, they all have a price to book ratio of less than one. The Price toBook ratio, in simple terms, is what each share would be worth if the company went out of business today and all assets sold off. The lower the ratio, the better. And if the number is less than one, it means that each share is worth more than the assets.

Here is the list. Dropped more than 50% this year, selling below cash per share, low priced to book ratio, and a price to sales ratio of less than one. All are United States based companies.

List of Tax Selling Stocks

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. ACOR
Peabody Energy Corporation BTU
Cumulus Media Inc. CMLS
Express, Inc. EXPR
Francesca’s Holdings Corporation FRAN
Hallmark Financial Services, Inc. HALL
KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. KLXE
Nine Energy Service, Inc. NINE
PBF Energy Inc. PBF
Steel Connect, Inc. STCN
United Insurance Holdings Corp. UIHC

Just remember, these stocks may be trading at a very low price for a reason. Happy investing.

How to Invest in Tax Liens

by Fred Fuld III

You may have heard about or read about tax liens in the past, especially how you can sometimes get high interest rates or even a house out of your investment. But do you really know how a tax lien works?

I have actually gone through the process of looking at tax liens for sale, researching them, buying them, and getting a return on my money.

What Are Tax Liens?

Here are some basics. Tax liens are county government liens against real estate where the property tax is past due. When the property owner fails to pay the taxes that are due, a tax lien certificate is issued.

When you get the tax lien certificate, don’t expect anything fancy, like scrollwork borders and a vintage font.

The following is an example of what I received from Maricopa County in Arizona. (Private information has been greyed out.) It almost looks like it was printed with a dot matrix printer.

Tax Lien Certificate

Investors can buy the tax lien certificates through county auctions and can earn outrageously high interest rates of potentially 16%, 18%, 24%, or possibly 36% on their tax liens. Bidding can be done all online.

The property owners are required to pay the back taxes plus the interest or they can lose their property to the tax lien owner.

What States Offer Tax Liens?

The states that offer tax liens are as follows:

  • Alabama
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • Colorado
  • Florida
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kentucky
  • Maryland
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Vermont
  • West Virginia
  • Wyoming.
  • District of Columbia

Sorry, Californians. However, the good news is, you don’t have to live in a tax lien state in order to buy a tax lien in that particular state. You don’t even have to be a United States citizen or resident.

My Tax Lien Experience

So what was my story? I went to the county website of a couple of counties that had tax lien auctions coming up and start bidding.

It was a little more difficult and time-consuming than that, but it worked. The fist thing I did, after discovering that Maricopa County in Arizona was having an auction, was that I began looking though the Tax Lien section of the  Maricopa County Treasurer’s Office website.

I then accessed the list of all the tax liens of properties being auctioned off, and started going through it. After being overwhelmed with numerous parcels, I decided to narrow it down, and chose the Scottsdale area. I figured that I couldn’t go wrong in a high income section of the city.

So I went through every property in Scottsdale, houses, condos, lots, and raw land. It took a few hours but I did my searching while sitting in front of the TV.

I looked up literally every one of the properties on Google Maps. Some of the lots turned out to be strange shapes, like five feet wide by a hundred feet long. Some of the houses had liens that were way above my budget.

Then I came across a good one. It was a lot in an expensive neighborhood surrounded by million dollar homes, and the tax lien fit my budget of ten thousand dollars maximum. Since it was in a nice development, I figured that it couldn’t be located on top of a toxic waste dump.

On Google Maps in Satellite View, I noticed that the ground had been graded and a space for a swimming pool had been dug, but no structure or even a foundation on the property.

But then I discovered something  else.  I found a map on the Maricopa web site (hard to find and navigate to at the time) which also had a satellite view. When I checked on that map, it showed that the lot had a house on it! Apparently, the Google Maps picture was a bit out of date.

Well, that was a nice bonus. I registered to bid right away and funded my account.

Once all that was completed, I could bid. Now the way the bidding works may seem strange, but when you think about it, it makes sense.

Here is the bidding process. You bid on what the lowest interest rate is that you are willing to accept on your tax lien. The bidder who bids the lowest interest rate wins. At the time (this was several years ago), the bidding could range from 18% to 4% in one percent intervals, for this particular county. The bidding range has since changed; it’s now 16% down to 0%, the last time I checked.

It was time for me to bid, with a couple weeks to go. I placed a bid of 6%, figuring that would be a nice return if I won.

Then two days before the auction close, I thought I better lower the bid to 5% as it would give me a better chance of winning, plus 5% is still a great return.

One day before the close of the auction, I changed my mind one more time. I wanted that property and I wanted it badly.

So I changed it to 4%, the lowest bid  level available at the time. I really didn’t care by then how much or how little the interest rate was, I just wanted to get the tax lien and hope that it never got paid off, so I could take over ownership of the house.

The next day, the auction closed. According to the web site, there were two bidders at 4%, with me being one of them. When there is a tie, a drawing takes place.  I’m not sure how the drawing takes place but I won!

It was my lucky day. A few days later, I received the tax lien certificate in the mail. It looked nothing like any certificate I had ever seen. (See above.)

Now you’re probably wondering. Did I get a million dollar mansion for a few thousand dollars?

As it turned out, I ended up owning the lien for a little over a month, but earning three months worth of interest. I’m not going to complain. I think it had something to do with the tax lien holding period overlapping three months.

The tax lien investment was practically risk-less. It was backed by the value of the property, which was substantial. Not to bad a return for such a short term holding in a very low interest rate environment.

Where to Find More Info about Tax Liens

There are plenty of these tax lien auctions available. There are also plenty of books available about tax liens.

If you are interested in learning more about tax liens, check out some of these books:

Zero Risk Real Estate: Creating Wealth Through Tax Liens and Tax Deeds

Tax Lien$

Profit by Investing in Real Estate Tax Liens: Earn Safe, Secured, and Fixed Returns Every Time

The Complete Guide to Investing in Real Estate Tax Liens & Deeds: How to Earn High Rates of Return

The 16 % Solution, Revised Edition: How to Get High Interest Rates in a Low-Interest World with Tax Lien Certificates

Where are the Upcoming Tax Liens?

If you are looking for the web sites of the counties, parishes, and cities holding tax lien sales, here is a random sample of some of them with links:

Maricopa County, Arizona
https://treasurer.maricopa.gov/Pages/LoadPage?page=TaxSaleDetails

Yuma County, Arizona
http://www.yumacountyaz.gov/government/treasurer/tax-lien-information

Broward County, Florida
http://www.broward.org/RecordsTaxesTreasury/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/Pages/TaxCertificateSale.aspx

Sarasota County, Florida
https://www.sarasotataxcollector.com/services/tax-services/property-tax/tax-cert-sale

Sarasota, Florida
https://sarasotafl.realtaxlien.com

Charleston County, South Carolina
https://www.charlestoncounty.org/departments/delinquent-tax/tax-sale.php

Gwinnett County, Georgia
https://gwinnetttaxcommissioner.publicaccessnow.com/PropertyTax/DelinquentTax/TaxLiensTaxSales.aspx

Fulton County, Georgia
https://www.fultoncountytaxes.org/property-taxes/property-tax-sales.aspx

Baldwin County, Alabama
http://baldwincountyal.gov/Government/revenue/divisions/collections/tax-sale

Lake County, Indiana
https://www.lakecountyin.org/portal/media-type/html/group/treasurer/page/default.psml/js_pane/P-13b9cba7958-10765;jsessionid=A16CFFBF59CB0D86B6F925D0A7CECBD4

Polk County, Iowa
https://www.polkcountyiowa.gov/treasurer/tax-sale-buyer-info/

Jefferson County, Kentucky
http://www.jeffersoncountyclerk.org/delinquenttaxes/

District of Columbia
https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/page/real-property-tax-sale

Baltimore, Maryland
https://www.bidbaltimore.com/main?unique_id=87A77E142A5211E8AB57310613945BAD&use_this=view_faqs

Nassau County, New York
https://www.nassaucountyny.gov/527/Annual-Tax-Lien-Sale

Happy Investing!!!

 

 

 

As an Amazon Associate, earnings may be generated from qualifying purchases of books from affiliate links.

Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank

by Fred Fuld III

The book, Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank, is an engaging look at how an American private equity firm, took over and turned around South Korea’s largest bank.

The author, Weijian Shan, takes you through the trials and tribulations of getting the deal don after more than a year of negotiations. My favorite chapter was Chapter 12 Sign It or Forget It.

The book includes photographs and even a few comics. Also included is A Primer on Commercial Banking, which is in the Appendix.

The author has a way of making private equity sound fascinating. If you want an interesting business-related read, I recommend  Money Games.

 

 

As an Amazon Associate, earnings may be generated from qualifying purchases of books from affiliate links.

Cannabis Legalized in Five More States, Marijuana Stocks Take Off

by Fred Fuld III

In case you missed some of the propositions in the latest election, five more states have just followed the lead of Colorado, California, and many other states. The legalization of cannabis propositions have all passed. The five states are as follows:

South Dakota – Approved the medicinal use and recreational use of marijuana.

Mississippi – Approved the medical use of marijuana.

Montana – Approved the recreational use of marijuana.

Arizona – Approved the recreational use of marijuana.

New Jersey – Approved the recreational use of marijuana.

So what has this done for the cannabis stocks? It took investors a few days to process (and a few days for most of the votes to come in), but most of the marijuana stocks skyrocketed on Friday.

Here are just a few that got high:

  • Aurora Cannabis (ACB) +56.1%
  • Akerna (KERN)  +32.6%
  • HEXO (HEXO) +23.5%
  • Tilray, Inc. (TLRY) +23.2%
  • Green Organic Dutchman Holdings (TGODF) +20.8%
  • WeedMD Inc. (WDDMF) +19.8%
  • Flower One Holdings Inc. (FLOOF) +18.9%
  • Cronos Group Inc. (CRON) +16.2%
  • Sundial Growers Inc. (SNDL) +13.6%

It will be interesting to see which ones maintain their strength. Some may get higher and higher, others may go up in smoke.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.

 

 

Who Owns the Treasury Securities that Make Up the National Debt?

If you ever wondered who owns the U.S. Treasury bonds, notes and bills that are loans to the United States Government, here is a list with a rough estimate of the amounts that the U.S. owes.

  • US Investors $6,890 billion
  • US Government $5,730 billion
  • Federal Reserve $2,380 billion
  • Japan $1,261 billion
  • China $1074 billion
  • United Kingdom $446 billion
  • Ireland $330 billion
  • Luxembourg $267 billion
  • Hong Kong $266 billion
  • Brazil $264 billion

The rest includes many other countries, such as Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Belgium, India, France, Saudi Arabia, etc.