Good Companies Make Mediocre Stocks

In Brief A hard-core contrarian value screen using the ‘total return ratio’ in order to combine value metrics with growth. Background Born in Ohio in 1931, John Neff was hired by Wellington Management in 1964 to run their newly-launched Windsor fund. The fund eventually became part of Bogle's new Vanguard operation in the early 1970s and saw phenomenal outperformance under John Neff’s tenure.

By David I. Templeton: For dividend investors, one of the keys is to invest in those companies that have a sufficiently high dividend yield that is sustainable and that have high dividend growth rates. Investors focusing only on high yielding stocks run the risk of investing in a company that can not sustain its dividend and then face a dividend cut. Dividend cuts most often have a negative impact on a company's stock price.

Scott Adams (Dilbert’s creator) has some new investing advice: Betting on the Bad Guys

In early 2011, soon after Bank of Nova Scotia completed its $2.3-billion acquisition of Dundee Wealth, Paul Holden and Rob Sedran, two financial service analysts at CIBC World Markets, wrote a report on what the country’s most international bank may do with its 37% of CI Financial Inc., a $2.3-billion stake it acquired from Sun Life Financial in late 2008.

By Mitchell Harris:Long term option plays are sometimes a great way to pad your pocket with premiums. If you are committed to a particular stock and are willing to go out two years on a covered LEAP, you will be justly rewarded. The most important thing is to not be a Monday morning quarterback, and complain if the stock trades through a strike price before expiration. Be happy with the total return analysis of the trade. No greed here, pigs get slaughtered.

By Tactical Investor:The stock has pulled back nicely since it topped out towards the end of July, and the current price could make for a good long term entry point. Southern Company (SO) has increased its dividends consecutively for 11 years and has been paying dividends since 1948. It is one of the largest electric and best managed utility companies in the United States. It is also one of the top energy firms servicing the Southeast market.

Value Expectations submits: This week, we draw some inspiration from Fidelity’s Low-Priced Stock Fund run by Joel Tillinghast. Mr. Tillinghast is well-known for his fund’s tremendous track record of providing consistent return, capital preservation and total return and was named stock picker of the decade by MarketWatch.

By StreetAuthority: By Nathan Slaughter Do you want to make a lot of money investing in commodities? Then oil and gas producers are a great place to start. But odds are you're probably not going to do it with global behemoths like Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).