It pays more dividends than any other company in the United States. In total, it distributes more than $2.5 billion every quarter, or about $10.2 billion each year. That’s more than the annual gross domestic product of Nicaragua, Barbados, The Bahamas or Madagascar. In fact, it’s enough… Read More

The S&P 500 is up 11% year-to-date. But there is another rally that is getting less attention: U.S. Treasury yields have been on the rise. Short-term Treasury yields have inched up throughout 2012, while longer-term Treasuries have bumped up only… Read More

In 2011, the large health care and pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) generated $13.9 billion in free cash flow and maintained its “AAA” credit rating.   The drug maker Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) had more… Read More

You’ve likely never heard of it… This company doesn’t sell a physical product. It doesn’t have storefronts. And it doesn’t have a massive headquarters in a glass building in Manhattan. #-ad_banner-#In fact, its office sits in an unremarkable three-story building in a small Florida… Read More

In the late 1990s, I was on the Board of Trustees for a nonprofit educational organization. The board’s primary responsibility was to oversee the investment of the organization’s trust funds, worth roughly $5 million. One of the trust funds was used to grant college scholarships. So it… Read More