Out Fox The $treet

The New Dogs of the Dow had a solid Q1 gain that surpassed the benchmark Dow. The average stock in the Net Payout Yields based list had a yield of 9.2% to start Q2. Due to a large buyback, United Technologies overtook the lead with the highest yield at 13.1%. This article will focus on the quarterly returns and changes in the new "Dogs of the Dow" strategy originally introduced (see  The New Dogs Of The Dow - 2015 ) last January. The goal of the series is to highlight that the old theory of buying the Dow stocks with the highest dividend yields is outdated. The more modern version involves using the Net Payout Yield (NPY) that adds the net stock buyback yield to the dividend yield. This yield more accurately reflects the modern corporate structure that utilizes a large amount of stock buybacks. Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: Long AAPL, CAT, IBM, TRV. Please read the disclaimer page for more details.

After recently  writing  about how some of the new media companies had failed to embrace new business models, along came my initial introduction to shopkick. Last week, shopkick  announced  that it has signed up  Target ( TGT )  as the largest retailer to use the service. My issue with some of the new media companies is that the revenue source remains very old media since a large salesforce is needed to attract advertiser dollars. Shopkick is an interesting app for the iPhone and Android phones that makes shopping more delightful. Users are rewarded with points known as "kicks" for walking into stores or scanning products. These kicks can be redeemed for gift cards,  Facebook ( FB )  credits, iTunes downloads, or donated to charity. Guests can also receive special in-store deals including coupons and discounts. Brand Awareness After trying the app at the local Target store, it struck me that no better advertising tool existed for brand pro...