Editor's Note: The following content was posted in real-time on our premium Buzz & Banter. It is being shared here for the benefit of the Minyanville community.Gate Sniffage! - 9:57 am Minyan Editor Terry Woo is awesome but seriously I wish he wouldn't blast this music first thing on a Friday! We spoke yesterday about my portfolio housekeeping--which included buying some Lehman (LEH) and selling my S&P calls. While we can debate the merits of the latter matter that discipline has saved me many times over the course of my career. Look forwar???
Exchange traded notes [ETN] are a fairly new investment product that share some characteristics of exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. They are simply direct debt obligations issued by a bank or investment firm rather than an interest in a pool of securities that define an ETF.
A bank simply issues a note and promises to pay the holder whatever the total return of an index is over the maturity of the note, less a management fee. The bank may or may not...
Four times a year, hedge funds & asset managers with > $100 million AUM (assets under management) are required to report to the SEC their holdings from the previous quarter. I check these 13F filings quarterly just to get a sense as to where these funds are putting their money sector wise. If you just sit down and do some simple number crunching between last quarter's 13F and this quarter's 13F, you can see exactly where these funds have been moving their money.
Please note, these 13F's should be treated as a lagging indicator simply because...
Catching up on the notables from Altria's (MO) recent earnings call.
Repurchased 53.5 million shares during the quarter at an average price per share of $21.81. Additionally, Altria declared a quarterly dividend of $0.29 per common share paid to stockholders of records as of June 13, 2008. This equates to approximately $600 million in dividend payments. Combined, the stock buyback and dividends totaled approximately $1.8 billion. This represents over 4% of Altria's June 30th market capitalization.
The chimps in the MSM are saying "Altria's (MO) profits fall". Well, if you spun off 75% or your business, yeah, they would. But the 25% that is left did better this year than last ,and that is all that matters.
Here is what the headlines out there today failed to tell you:
Despite €2.3B writedown, Deutsche Bank beats. Deutsche Bank (DB) reports a 63% decline in Q2 net profit on further asset write-downs, lower revenue, higher credit-risk provisions and trading losses. Despite all that, net profit of €649M was significantly better than the €426M consensus. DB posted a €2.3B markdown, following a €2.7B writedown in Q1. It has written down a total of €7.3B since the credit crisis began last summer. "Looking forward, we remain cautious for the remainder of 2008," CEO Josef Ackermann said. DB says it is it is...
Altria Group (MO) is expected to report Q2 earnings before market open Thursday, July 31, with a conference call scheduled for 9:00 a.m. ET.
Guidance
Analysts are looking for a profit of 45c on revenue of $4.17B. The consensus is 42c to 49c for EPS, and revenue of $3.98B to $4.85B, according to First Call. When Altria reported in-line Q1 results on April 24, it gave FY08 EPS guidance of $1.63 to $1.67 vs. a consensus of $1.67. Additionally, it reaffirmed that guidance on May 28. Note that this quarter is the first quarter since the...
DALLAS , Aug . 26 / PRNewswire / - - BeaconEquity . com announces the availability of Trade Alerts on stocks making news today.Investors can view all of the daily trading notes for free by visiting ...
LONDON - - ( Marketwire - August 25 , 2008 ) - MaybachFinancial . com is one of the fastest growing independent and unbiased research firms in the world.Through our numerous partnerships with ...
David Winters likes to go anywhere to look for bargains.He invests heavily in Europe , especially he likes Norway.These are his buys and sells during the second quarter.David Winters owns 16 ...
LONG BEACH ( Mffais . com ) - Bancorpsouth Inc sold - 2,603 ( - 25.51 % ) of their shares in Altria Group Inc ( MO ) , bringing their current holdings to 7,598 shares as shown by filings made ...
Toddo notes that positive technical constructs that remain in place , but risk management should continue to trump reward chasing.This is a bear market after all.Now that the dollar has broken ...
LONG BEACH ( Mffais . com ) - Jensen Investment Management Inc added additional 4,840 ( 1423.52 % ) shares of Altria Group Inc ( MO ) , bringing their current holdings to 5,180 shares as shown ...
LONG BEACH ( Mffais . com ) - Dearborn Partners Llc added the Altria Group Inc ( MO ) company to their portfolio , by buying 7,420 shares as shown by filings made public on 2008 - 08 - 06.The ...
Reaching out to Democrats in a rousing prime-time speech intended to unite her fractured party, Sen. Hillary Clinton forcefully urges delegates at the Democratic National Convention and her supporters throughout the country to come together and elect her primary season rival Sen. Barack Obama as the next U.S. president.
State and Federal regulators shut down Columbian Bank and Trust of Topeka, Kan. -- the ninth bank to fail so far this year and the fifth since mid-July.
Carrying extra weight and getting little exercise increase a person?s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, but those risk factors don?t inevitably mean you?ll develop the disease.
Among those stocks seeing significant movement in Thursday trading are Altria, ADP, CBS, Walt Disney, Exxon Mobil, LKQ, Marathon Oil, Motorola, Nymex, Prudential, Starbucks, Symantec, Tyco International and Visa.
CHICAGO (ONN.tv) -- In a market that is staring down the barrel of stagflation, (stagnant economic growth, inflation and high unemployment) there are three characteristics that you have to look for to be defensive. These three characteristics help because they limit your down side in a bear market.
In its first full quarter since spinning off Philip Morris International, Altria Group reports a 58% drop in second-quarter profit. But earnings on an adjusted basis would have shown 12% growth as the company's flagship Marlboro brand against expands its market share.
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives vote overwhelmingly to call tobacco a drug and subject it to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. But there are high hurdles to it becoming a law.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Altria Group, Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter profit fell to $930 million, or 45 cents a share, from $2.22 billion, or $1.05 a share, in the same quarter a year before. Analysts had expected earnings on average of 45 cents a share, one cent above actual reported adjusted earnings, according to a FactSet Research survey. Net revenue for the quarter was $5.06 billion compared to $4.86 billion in the year-ago period. Altria also said it still forecasts that 2008 adjusted full-year diluted earnings from continuing operations will be in the range of $1.63 to $1.67...
Stocks 
Altria Group
![](http://seekingalpha.com/article/86448-dividend-paying-stocks-don-t-discount-them-just-yet?source=feed" rel="nofollow" >Complete Story »</a></p>
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<h4 class="kl_rssfeed-item_title"><strong><a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/85333-is-tobacco-a-safe-haven-in-the-current-market?source=feed" target="_blank">
Is Tobacco a Safe Haven in the Current Market?</a></strong></h4>
<span class="kl_rssfeed-item_date">(Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:06:54 -0400)</span>
<p> <strong><a href="http://www.mikehav.com/blog.html" rel="nofollow" >Mike Havrilla</a> submits:</strong><p><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kO7pNmIMLKM/SH0z-ou9hkI/AAAAAAAAADE/_2Cj6MSSSqA/s1600-h/tob23.JPG" rel="nofollow" ><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223388293998937666" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_kO7pNmIMLKM/SH0z-ou9hkI/AAAAAAAAADE/_2Cj6MSSSqA/s400/tob23.JPG" /></a><br />The table above (click on the image for a full-screen view) highlights a global tobacco income index which screens for companies with market caps of greater than $200 million which pay regular cash dividends to shareholders. All companies which are majority-owned subsidiaries of another entity or foreign holding companies of the major tobacco companies such as Philip Morris International (PM) and British American Tobacco (BTI) were excluded from this index. The index is composed of 23 companies from across the world and...</p>
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<h4 class="kl_rssfeed-item_title"><strong><a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/84850-investing-in-dividend-paying-companies?source=feed" target="_blank">
Investing in Dividend Paying Companies</a></strong></h4>
<span class="kl_rssfeed-item_date">(Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:59:07 -0400)</span>
<p> <strong><a href="http://www.slackerwealth.com/" rel="nofollow" >Devin Hobbes</a> submits:</strong><p>Suppose 20 years ago, in the middle of the Savings and Loan Crisis, you decided to invest in a basket of dividend paying companies to hold for the long term. Not wanting to do too much research but still interested in buying quality companies, you decided to invest in those Dow Jones Industrial Average components that paid dividends at the time. You cashed the dividend checks, but left your portfolio alone. How would your investment have done until now (as of market close July 11, 2008)?<br /><br /><b>In July 1988, the 30 companies in the Dow were:</b></p><br/><a...</p>
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<h3 class="kl_rssfeed-title"><a href="http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:MO&client=news-rss" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" >News for Altria Group, Inc. - Google Finance</a></h3>
<p>News for Altria Group, Inc. - Google Finance</p>
<image src="/finance/s/qv80KJx2Jqw/images/logo_blue_small.gif" alt="News for Altria Group, Inc. - Google Finance" />
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<h4 class="kl_rssfeed-item_title"><strong><a href="http://www.dividend.com/blog/?p=1213" target="_blank">
With General Electric and Altria Group, the Turtle Wins the Race (GE, MO)</a></strong></h4>
<span class="kl_rssfeed-item_date">(Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:25:34 GMT)</span>
<p>
<div style="padding:0px; margin-bottom:1.5em;">
<a href="http://www.dividend.com/blog/?p=1213" style="font-size:1.2em" rel="nofollow" >With General Electric and Altria Group, the Turtle Wins the Race (GE, MO)</a>
<br> <span style="color:#888888;">Dividend.com</span> - <span style="white-space:nowrap">17 hours ago </span>
<div style="width:80%;">The stocks of Altria Group ( MO ) and General Electric ( GE ) have continued to be dormant investment plays for what feels like forever.Investors that own shares of these two names need to understand ...</div>
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<h4 class="kl_rssfeed-item_title"><strong><a href="http://www.marketintelligencecenter.com/articles/665818" target="_blank">
Altria Group (MO) NewsBite - MO Could Be On the Move</a></strong></h4>
<span class="kl_rssfeed-item_date">(Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:31:15 GMT)</span>
<p>
<div style="padding:0px; margin-bottom:1.5em;">
<a href="http://www.marketintelligencecenter.com/articles/665818" style="font-size:1.2em" rel="nofollow" >Altria Group (MO) NewsBite - MO Could Be On the Move</a>
<br> <span style="color:#888888;">Market Intelligence Center</span> - <span style="white-space:nowrap">18 hours ago </span>
<div style="width:80%;">Altria Group ( MO ) could be on the move today and is now at $20.62 , down $0.16 ( - 0.77 % ) on volume of 3,254,431 shares traded.Over the last 52 weeks the stock has ranged from a low of $19.84 ...</div>
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<h4 class="kl_rssfeed-item_title"><strong><a href="http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=57721&cat=8" target="_blank">
Beacon Equity Issues Technical Trade Alerts on Tobacco</a></strong></h4>
<span class="kl_rssfeed-item_date">(Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:46:49 GMT)</span>
<p>
<div style="padding:0px; margin-bottom:1.5em;">
<a href="http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=57721&cat=8" style="font-size:1.2em" rel="nofollow" >Beacon Equity Issues Technical Trade Alerts on Tobacco</a>
<br> <span style="color:#888888;">TransWorldNews (press release)</span> - <span style="white-space:nowrap">Aug 26, 2008 </span>
<div style="width:80%;">Today ){kind=link}