Following is a list of the blog posts from last year receiving the largest number of hits from our readers. The last two posts received a high number of hits, but did not make the top five. However, the content of the last two posts may be timely reading for investors. P/E Level For S&P 500 Index At Level Not Seen Since 1990sMega Cap Stocks May Be Poised To OutperformTransport Company Warnings Not Positive Sign For Global Economic GrowthInvestor Equity Fund Flows Indicate They May Be Late To The...  Read more...

As 2012 comes to a close, all of us at HORAN want to thank our clients for allowing us to work with them this past year. We wish all of our clients, prospects and readers of our content a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!The past 12-months were certainly volatile with the S&P 500 Index up 13% through early April, then up only 2% by the end of May. As the market closes out the year today, the S&P will be higher by more than 15%. Not a bad year for equity investors. Fixed income investors en...  Read more...

Equity volume for the NYSE is closing out 2012 at near a ten year low.  Investors seem to be giving up on the equity markets if this volume data is any indication.From The Blog of HORAN Capital AdvisorsData Source: NYSERelated to this low equity volume is the continued flow of funds out of equity mutual funds. The equity outflows appear to be finding their way into fixed income mutual funds.From The Blog of HORAN Capital AdvisorsLastly, margin debt as of November 2012 is at a level last seen pri...  Read more...

One of the hot investment topics of 2012 has centered around dividend paying stocks. With the Federal Reserve pursuing a near zero interest rate policy, the yield on treasury bonds as well as cash have been pegged at a very low level. For investors relying on income, some investment strategists have extolled the virtues of dividend paying stocks with many of the dividend strategies generating yields higher than treasury bonds and cash. For example, the iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (DV...  Read more...

Late last week Standard and Poor's reported dividend and buyback data for S&P 500 companies through the third quarter of 2012. Year over year and quarter over quarter dividend growth was reported at 17.4% and 3.2% respectively. Buyback activity was actually lower on a year over year and quarter over quarter basis. YOY buybacks declined 12.4% and QOQ buybacks fell 7.2%.Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices notes, "Company buyback activity has been erratic over the past...  Read more...

Politicians have just a few days remaining to come up with some resolution to the fiscal cliff facing the country. It appears the resolution will be another "can kick" that mostly increases taxes. The President's income break point is often stated to by $250,000 while House Speaker John Boehner's Plan B had higher taxes for those with incomes above $1 million. The problem with focusing only on increasing taxes and generating more revenue is the fact that the expense side of the budget needs to b...  Read more...

Most small business owners and highly compensated employees do not realize they are in danger of falling into a gap between the disability protection they have and what they actually need. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we have a 30% chance of becoming disabled before reaching full retirement age, and yet only a third of employees in the private sector have long term disability insurance.  Highly-compensated employees who are covered by an employer- paid or group long term ...  Read more...

It would be hard to envision that the public has not heard about the fast approaching fiscal cliff. What seems lost in the narrative of the media and their focus on raising tax rates, is the fact government spending continues to consume a larger share of the government's budget.As the below chart indicates, the CBO is forecasting social security and medicare payments to account for a larger and larger share of the budget as far as the eye can see. Addressing the growth in these programs will be ...  Read more...

One of the most popular investment topics in the fourth quarter has to do with the impending fiscal cliff discussion taking place in Washington, DC as can be seen in the Google Trends graph below. One area of interest for investors is the impact on the taxation of dividends if Washington policy succumbs to going over the cliff. Going over the cliff would result in the tax rate on dividend income increasing to as high as 43.4% versus the current 15% rate. Interestingly, this potentially higher ta...  Read more...

“Uncertainty” is a major concern for America’s small business owners according to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). Uncertainty in tax and health care law, in particular, are two of the biggest worries.  So what can the time-starved small business owner do to keep abreast of major changes in these areas? Understand where to go for timely unbiased and non-partisan public policy information.  The following websites are well-respected bec...  Read more...