Don't Buy an Apple iPad from Someone in a Parking Lot

A woman in South Carolina paid $180 cash for an Apple (AAPL) iPad that was offered to her in the parking lot of a McDonald's (MCD) restaurant by a couple guys who said they got a good deal on a purchase of a bunch of them. Much to her dismay, when she got home and opened the box, it turned out to be a flat block of wood painted black.

Hot Coffee Stocks

News has been buzzing in the financial press recently about the possible takeover of Peet's Coffee (PEET) by Starbucks (SBUX). This is on the heels of the news about the partnership of Starbucks with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR).

Some investors consider McDonald's Corporation (MCD) to be a coffee retailer. However, for retailers with a primary product of coffee, Starbucks is the largest, with a market cap of over $26 billion. The stock trades at 26 times current earnings and 20 times forward earnings. It also pays a yield of 1.5%.

Another way to play America's (and the world's) demand for coffee is to invest in the wholesale coffee roasters. Coffee Holding Co., Inc. (JVA) is a roaster of wholesale coffee which markets wholesale green coffee, private label coffee, and branded coffee in the United States and Canada. The stock trades at 13.5 times earnings and has a forward price to earnings ratio of 11. The yield is a generous 2.7%.

If you believe the price of coffee is going to rise, you can always invest in the iPath DJ-UBS Coffee TR Sub-Index ETN (JO), which attempts to track the Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return Sub-Index.

For a free list of coffee stocks, which can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owns MCD.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of November

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 Excel 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 ex-dividend date and the yield.

FOR A SHORT WEEK, THERE ARE A LOT OF STOCKS GOING EX.

McDonald's Corporation (MCD) market cap: $82.0B ex div date: 11/29/2010 yield: 3.2%

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) market cap: $25.4B ex div date: 11/29/2010 yield: 4.2%

Northeast Utilities System (NU) market cap: $5.4B ex div date: 11/29/2010 yield: 3.4%

Fifth Street Finance Corp. (FSC) market cap: $628.1M ex div date: 11/29/2010 yield: 11.5%

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 does not own any of the above at the time article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

The Largest Employers in the World

You might be surprised to learn what the largest employer in the world is. Want to take a guess? It is the Chinese Army, also known as the Peoples Liberation Army, at 2.3 million employees. WalMart (WMT) is in second place with 2.1 million employees, then the Indian Railway at 1.4 million, and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom at 1.33 million.

In fifth place is China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SNP) also known as Sinopec Corp. with 639,690 employees. Then there is G4S, a private security company in England in sixth place at 585,000 employees. Seventh is PetroChina (PTR), China's biggest oil producer which trades on the NYSE, with 539,168 employees.

Deutsche Post (DPSGY.PK), is another publicly traded big employer. This mail and package delivery company has 436,650 employees. The engineering conglomerate Siemens (SI), also publicly traded and trades on the New York Stock Exchange, has 420,800 employees. Last but not least, McDonalds (MCD), the fast food company, has around 400,000 employees.

If you like interesting lists of stocks such as these, check out all the free stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author owned SI and MCD at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com