The Week’s Best at VIN

On BusinessWeek.com, S&P’s Howard Silverblatt has a great screen with the selection criteria that Warren Buffet uses for his portfolio. Stock Screen: Buy ‘Em Like Buffett

The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. is a leading information services organization serves worldwide markets in education, business, industry, other professions and government. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

The articles listed in the reading links contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network (DIV-Net) over the past week.

Join Jae Junand the members of Div-Net in this weeks Investing Carnival # 11

Five characteristics to check for to determine if a potential investment is truly a great business.

The typical dividend aristocrat is a mature company with wide moat that has weathered the storms of many boom and bust cycles while continuing to increase dividend payments to shareholders. These companies as well as the dividend champions are the cornerstone to my dividend strategy.

There have always been companies that stand head-and-shoulders above their peers and the competition. They are loved by their shareholders, hated by the competition and known by all. Who are these companies and how can I find the next great company? All the great companies have something in common. Let’s look at a few of them:

A look at the Treasury’s plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plus Guy Spier of Aquamarine Capital Management’s guidelines for protecting your portfolio from Black Swans

Diageo PLC (public limited company in the UK) is an international producer of premium alcohol based brands, including Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskies, Captain Morgan rum, Baileys Original Irish Cream liqueur, JeB scotch whisky, Tanqueray gin and Guinness stout.

Caterpillar Inc. is the world’s largest producer of earthmoving equipment, is also a big maker of electric power generators and engines used in petroleum markets. Linked here is a detailed stock analysis and commentary.