National Grid plc (NGG) is a London-based utility company. It owns and operates of regulated electricity and gas infrastructure networks in United Kingdom (Wales and Scotland) and North Eastern United States (upstate New York, NYC, Long Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island). It serves approximately 20 million consumers in the United Kingdom and the United States.
NGG is part of Mergent’s International Dividend Achiever Index and has been paying growing dividends since last 12 years. My objective here is to analyze if NGG continues to be a good dividend growth stock and how it will rate on my scale of risk-to-dividends.
Trend Analysis
Here I am looking at trends for past 9 years of corporation’s revenue and profitability. These parameters should show consistently growth trends. The image below shows the trend charts. continue reading rest of the article….
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) engages in the research and development, manufacture, and sale of various products in the health care field worldwide. The company operates in three segments viz., (1) Consumer; (2) Pharmaceutical; and (3) Medical Devices and Diagnostics. The company was founded in 1886 and is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
We investors know BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India, and China. This BRIC label clubs all four distinct but emerging markets into a single entity. Based on this acronym there are many different mutual funds, closed-end funds, and ETFs. Each of these countries are different in many ways such as different governance structure, different governance policies, different types of economies, different strengths, different financial markets, different values, etc., Even with these differences they are clubbed together and viewed as single entity for investing in emerging markets.


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Effect of Currency Fluctuations on US Dividend Investors?
As you may or may not know, currency fluctuations significantly affect US dividend investors. In fact, in a recent survey conducted by the Pennsylvania-based AvantGard Company, it was discovered that fifty-nine percent of the 275 people that participated in the poll stated that currency fluctuations resulted in a loss or gain of at least five percent in the past year ending in March 31, 2010. These numbers are up forty percent when they are compared with the previous year’s survey.
“The majority of corporations are in the business of doing business, producing and manufacturing, not hedging currencies,” said Paul Bramwell, a senior vice president of Treasury solutions at the AvantGard unit of SunGard in Connecticut. “A lot of companies were caught unawares by volatility.” continue reading rest of the article….