My open letter to Google was picked up yesterday by Bloomberg’s David Wilson, who used it to generate a very insightful chart of the day: Among large U.S.-based companies not currently paying a dividend, Google (GOOGL) stands out as having a disproportionately high percentage of its assets in cold, hard cash. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) will...Read More

Note to Google Inc (GOOGL): It’s time grow up, wear your big-boy pants, and start paying a dividend. You’re a $374 billion company, for crying out loud, and your biggest rivals—Apple Inc (AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)—are among the most generous dividend payers and dividend raisers in the world.  For a company that used to...Read More

Barron’s had some interesting comments on McDonald’s (MCD) this past weekend (see “Trouble on the Menu at McDonald’s). Though mostly bearish on the stock, Barron’s noted that just 7 out of 29 Wall Street analysts were bullish on the stock. That’s the sort of one-sided sentiment contrarians dream of.   Only 7 of 29 Wall...Read More

Writing for Barron’s this week, John Kimelman had some comments on my recommendation of mortgage REITs. (see “The Value in Non-Tech Nasdaq, Mortgage REITs” Subscription may be required.) Here is an excerpt: Regardless of market conditions, Wall Street has proven itself adept at coming up with arguments for why a heavy weighting in stocks is...Read More

Rumors broke last week that the high-end version of the Apple Watch—the Edition—would have an 18-karat-gold case and could cost $4,000 or more.  Some rumors have the sales price closer to $10,000, or about on par with an entry-level Rolex. This immediately begs the question: Who in their right mind is going to pay Rolex...Read More