Last year, I compared U.S. dividend ETFs and gave readers a simple choice.  If you want current income, a high-yielding option like the iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend ETF (NYSE:$DVY) is your best option.  But for long-term growth, you might be better off investing in the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSE:$VIG).  Though it yields little...Read More

2013 might rightfully be called the year of the “Clash of the Gurus” to anyone watching the news.  The biggest is the very public slugfest between activist investors Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over nutritional supplements company Herbalife (NYSE:$HLF).  Ackman is short 20 million shares of Herbalife at last count, and Icahn is long at...Read More

I spend quite a bit of time extolling the virtues of Dividend Achievers, companies with a long history of raising their dividends.  I consider them the single best long-term investment you can make, and not purely because of the income.  In fact, the income is often secondary. That statement generally gets me a few raised...Read More

Charles Sizemore was quoted in Karen Talley’s MarketWatch article: Gun Stocks May be Losing Their Firepower: There are reasons other than gun control to stay away from firearm stocks, some money managers say. “Today, gun stocks are definitely cheap, and they might make a fine short-term trade,” said Charles Sizemore, principal of Sizemore Capital. “But...Read More

High dividend stocks were all the rage in 2011 and 2012, as yield-starved investors hunted for income where they could find it. Yet two of the sectors best known as “high yield” sectors—utilities ($XLU) and telecom ($XTL)—are on track for a sub-par 2012 (the utilities sector is actually negative for the year).  It’s not particularly...Read More