Are Recreational Vehicle Stocks a Recession Play?

Why do people buy RV's? Travelers don't have to pay for airline fares or hotel fees or car rental expenses. Large families can travel together for far less than what it would cost to travel by plane. Yes, the price of gasoline is much higher than it was a couple years ago, the price seems to have stabilized. Also, with interest rates the lowest they have been in years, the cost to purchase a motor home, camper, or trailer is favorable.

There are several companies in the business of manufacturing RVs, several of which pay dividends according to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. An example is Thor Industries, Inc. (THO), the world's largest manufacturer of recreation vehicles which just announced its preliminary sales report. RV sales were up 11% year over year for the three months ended October 31, 2011. The company's brands include Airstream International, Classic, Flying Cloud, and Bambi travel trailers, along with Interstate and Avenue Class B motorhomes. Thor trades at 11 times forward earnings and pays a decent yield of 2.4%.

Another way to play this market is through the stocks of companies that manufacture components for recreational vehicles, such as Drew Industries Inc. (DW). The company produces such products as towable RV steel chassis, axles, and suspensions, thermoformed bath, kitchen, and other products, patio doors, manual, electric, and hydraulic stabilizer and lifting systems, windows and screens, chassis components, and furniture and mattresses for RVs. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 13. Unfortunately, earnings for the latest quarter tanks by 30% over the same quarter last year, on a revenue increase of 13.6%.

A free list of other companies in the recreational industry can be found at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, which can be downloaded, updated and sorted.

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

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of September

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process 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. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful.

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 during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Nicor Inc. (GAS) market cap: $2.4B ex div date: 9/28/2011 yield: 3.6%

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) market cap: $20.3B ex div date: 9/28/2011 yield: 3.5%

Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) market cap: $59.1B ex div date: 9/28/2011 yield: 3.5%

National Health Investors Inc (NHI) market cap: $1.1B ex div date: 9/28/2011 yield: 6.0%

Thor Industries, Inc. (THO) market cap: $1.1B ex div date: 9/28/2011 yield: 3.2%

TransCanada Corporation (TRP) market cap: $28.4B ex div date: 9/28/2011 yield: 4.2%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website 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 the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

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 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.

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.

By Stockerblog.com