There’s one financial myth I’ve come across a few times that’s often aimed at younger folks. The advice given is to avoid buying large-caps when you start out investing and to target growth stocks instead. Presumably the logic is that high earnings growth will do the heavy lifting of wealth creation before transitioning to stodgy dividend stocks in old age.…

On the face of it PepsiCo stock’s recent performance has been very similar to that of other consumer defensives. That is to say that earnings growth has been fairly subdued with shareholder returns primarily a result of certain ‘unsustainable’ measures. What do I mean by this? Well, the most common criticisms include dividend increases in excess of earnings growth, debt…

As I type Hershey stock is up 46% year to date. Needless to say that is an incredible performance that I’m sure has made the company’s investors very happy. On the flip side it has led many financial commentators to label the stock as overvalued. At first glance it’s kind of hard to dispute that. I mean at the start…

The sheer scale of the McDonald’s shareholder return program is astonishing. In the roughly four-and-a-half years since the beginning of 2015 the company has spent a cumulative total of $42.5 billion returning cash to its shareholders. (For those interested roughly $14.5 billion of that went on cash dividends and the rest on stock repurchases). Total net profit for the period…

Without doubt the big story in the media space last year was Disney’s $70 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox. Indeed I think I’m right in saying that it was one of the ten largest deals of the decade across all sectors of the market. Much of the post-deal focus has been on Disney’s side of things; unsurprising when you…

It strikes me that one of the best sources of value right now is in the energy space. As much as I’d like to buy heaps of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and McDonald’s stock (among others) their valuations are pushing way beyond historical norms. The energy sector, on the other hand, offers up some good bargains. Royal Dutch Shell: The Outlook Through…