1. Aegon and ING Preferred Ex Dividend date: AEB and other Aegon preferred issues go ex dividend on 5/28/09. AEB is a floater that is currently paying the guaranteed 4% rate which works out to a $1 per share annually and 25 cents a quarter. The rate is a little higher now at 25.278 cents for some reason as shown tonight at the WSJ Dividend page. I currently own AEB and AEH. The buy of AEH was at $4.63. Buy of AEH in IRA/Aegon Statement of Intent to Pay Preferred Dividends/GE Loses AAA/ Several of the ING preferred go ex dividend on the 28th including the ones that I own-INZ, IND and ISF. METPRA is ex dividend tomorrow. I have no plans to add to any of these issues.
2. ING Preferred and Exchange Rates: I am aware that ING has preferred stock issues trading in the U.S. and a few others that trade just in Europe. Hybrid Securities - ING With the U.S. dollar buying just .7152 Euros as of the today, I have no reason to buy securities priced in Euros with my U.S. dollars. A European investor, who is comfortable with currency risk and knows how to manage it, may find a better opportunity of using their Euros to buy ING preferred on the NYSE. This of course has its dangers. The dollar could continue to fall against the Euro, which could cause a loss just on the currency exchange from dollars back into euros. The converse is also true. If the dollar starts to appreciate against the Euro, then the European investor could make money just on the currency exchange in addition to any share appreciation and the dividend. Most investors may understandably be reluctant to take on both a currency and a security risk at the same time. For me to go and buy a security on a European exchange priced in Euros, I would want my dollar to buy a lot more than just .7152 Euros, more like 1.1 to 1.2 Euros.
But, all actual and potential investors in ING preferred securities have to realize that these securities have already had one heck of a move. I bought ISF at $4.6 on 2/24/09.Masters of the Universe=Masters of Disaster/AIG & Financial Black Holes/M, CBR,TGT/BUY OF ISF
It closed today at $14.15. Normally I would sell a security that has move this much, just to harvest the gain before I could lose it, but this one is an IRA paying a 34% annualized dividend in perpetuity at my $4.6 cost, which is worth more to me than the 300%+ gain. So I would not be a buyer now even my U.S. dollar could buy 1.3 euros.
3. Time to Add a Stock ETF? I just about convinced myself last night that the recession was just about over when I wrote this post: Some Signs of Light at the End of the Tunnel: End of the Recession? In fact, I was going to buy 100 shares of either VV or VIG this morning in furtherance of my plan to buy stock ETFs now to replace some pathetic mutual funds which would be sold during the next bull market. I have just about had it with mutual funds. But, I decided to wait. So far, I have added VEU as part of this plan which I have discussed in this blog.
I did not mention my add of ADRU at around $14.5 in early April, an ETF with 100 ADRs of European companies in it, with a .3% expense ratio. InvescoPowerShares.com - BLDRS Europe 100 ADR Index Fund - ADRU I just forgot that I had done it, and it was also part of my plan to replace mutual funds with ETFs.
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