LPHI

[mbaugh]

Dividends are great for some people, especially long termers, but doesn't that take away from the stock price when they pay a dividend?

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071214/20071214005631.html?.v=1
The Latin American Discovery Fund, Inc.      LDF         $0.4915          $0.5805          $4.043 (Per Share of Long-term Capital Gain (yearly)

You are correct that the stock price goes down by the amount of the dividend, but it quickly recovers and continues to go up to new highs.  Look at the 5 year chart for LDF, very nice uptrend and high dividends.  I mostly trade, but I also have a long-term fund and this stock has been very good. 

[Houlahan]

Yep, that 5 year chart is sweet!

[David Randolph]

Good call.

It would have been better if I didn't touch the stock at all nicknite20, but it's better to recognize the mistake sooner rather than later. Thank you

David, you stated that with LPHI you wanted  to add some stability and predictability to the Main.  Have you looked at LDF.  Its a latin American fund that has a nice uptrend and pays over $7 annual dividends.

Hi mbaugh, no, I never looked at LDF. I'm not looking to buy funds (you don't need me for that), since that implies a macroeconomic call, and I'm more into microeconomics now. I'm not a big fan of dividends either, but a $7 dividend on a $30 fund implies a dividend yield of 23%, which is really juicy. Are you sure about that dividend? I'll try to take a look myself later.

You are correct that the stock price goes down by the amount of the dividend, but it quickly recovers and continues to go up to new highs.  Look at the 5 year chart for LDF, very nice uptrend and high dividends.

That's because that particular fund is attractive, not all dividend payers go back up after the ex-dividend date.

LPHI released results:

• InPlay: Life Partners Holdings reports Q3 results below single analyst expectation
Briefing.com (Mon 10:16am)

I'm not sure if the stock dived because of this "earnings miss", since that single analyst expectations were way too high, or if it fell due to "other issues", like litigation with governmental entities, which is much more worrisome than a single quarterly earnings.

Anyway, I'm glad I took a small loss at the start of the session, the stock fell 10.9%.

[berloga]

I am such a fool!! I thought I did not have LPHI in my portfolio, but as I just looked, here is it, losing >20% on the purchase price of $29!  For some reason I thought I did not buy it. Man, that sucks. I have quite a motley gain column, with a bunch of stocks in the below 40% gain. Yet, the protfolio is pretty much where it was a year ago. Well, will sell the damn thing tomorrow. 

[capricho]

Don't feel too bad about this as I missed David's notification this morning to sell LPHI and I didn't see it until LPHI had dropped nearly 10%, where upon I pulled the trigger.

I attempted to hedge against this bearish market by buying a S&P short EFT but I did so last week and so I was a bit late. Although it has helped soften the blow of the almost daily declines I'm still down 7.8% YTD which is a real bummer of course. I'm thinking that with the oversold market we're bound for a nice rally but to do so we'll need impetus in the form of a significant rate cut and perhaps more positive earnings surprises. If not then I can easily see the market losing support and rapidly tanking.

[pinoleropuro]

David! in lou of our not wanting to miss important notices such as this one, can you add a text message notification directly to a cell phone?
thanks.

[David Randolph]

David! in lou of our not wanting to miss important notices such as this one, can you add a text message notification directly to a cell phone?
thanks.

You're not the first to make this request pinoleropuro. I don't know anything about programming, but I'll ask Ramsburg if he knows how to do that.

Thanks for the suggestion

[David Randolph]

There's renewed interest in LPHI after the latest conference call:

• Life Partners Expected to Announce Increase in Revenues and Net Income in Conference Call
Business Wire (Wed, Mar 26)

$1.59 EPS, up from $0.31 a year ago. The one analyst covering the stock expects fiscal 2009 EPS (which ends in February 2009) of $2.71, so the stock is trading at 7 times forward earnings, while it is expected to grow them by 70%.

But there are issues ... one of LPHI's competitors had to stop doing business in certain states because of judicial mandate and LPHI also faces similar processes, as disclosed in its 10-Q forms filed with the SEC.

I probably have access to the full analysis of the analyst covering LPHI ... and will have to listen to the conference call ... I'll come back to LPHI soon.