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Quality business development company Hercules Capital (NYSE:HTGC) has called for early redemption of their 7% baby bonds (NYSE:HTGZ and HTGY) effective 2/24/2017.  These 2 issues became callable on 4/30/2015 and 9/30/2015 respectively and had maturity dates in 2019.  The company has sold a large ($230 million) convertible issue with a 4.375% coupon to fund the redemption.  The redemption cost will…

Six public companies announced dividend increases this week that are worth highlighting. Companies that pay rising dividends typically outperform the market. The management of such companies needs to be especially disciplined to increase such payouts. Columbia Banking System has increased its annual dividend three-fold since 2013 and this week announced a new 15.8% dividend hike. In addition to the current…

Three home improvement giants have offered their investors annual dividend increases at double-digit compound annual growth rates (CAGR) for decades. Expansion of the U.S. economy would increase demand for building materials and tools, which would kick-start the housing market and would directly benefit these three companies While some companies might profit from the Trump administration’s expected infrastructure spending, these three…

President Donald Trump’s signing of executive orders on Jan. 24 to revive the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipeline projects helped to boost the share prices of the pipeline builders TransCanada Corporation (NYSE:TRP) and Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ETP) nearly 3% in less than a day. Other energy stocks also could benefit on additional positive news from the Trump…

Securities firm Morgan Stanley has sold a giant fixed-to-floating rate preferred stock issue.  The offering is 40,000,000 shares and comes with an initial fixed rate of 5.85%. From our perspective this is a stingy coupon from an issuer that is less than investment grade.  It is not just the initial coupon that is stingy, but it is also the base…