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S&A Dividend Grabber: “500-B Shares — Double Your Money”

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, March 26, 2008

[regular readers: this originally appeared last week and I’m just correcting some bad coding, sorry for any confusion]

Can you really buy McDonald’s or Coca Cola for “pennies a share?”

Leaving aside the fact that “pennies a share” means nothing, of course (with enough pennies, you could easily pick up some of Steve Sjuggerud’s favorite St. Gaudens Double Eagles — though 100,000 pennies would put some stress on your pants pockets).

I’ve heard from many of you about the new teaser circulating for the Dividend Grabber service from Stansberry and Associates for so-called “500-B shares” so let’s take a look at it. You may have seen this as 500b or 500-B, or seen them called stocks or shares, but it doesn’t really matter (they just made the term up, as far as I can tell).

The teaser is from Sean Goldsmith, who I guess is the editor of the S&A Dividend Grabber these days. Those of you who’ve been around Gumshoedom for a while know that I’m not all that crazy about these dividend grabbing strategies as the basis for a portfolio, though they can occasionally work over the long run as long as you’re not just “buying the dividend.”

In the past I’ve heard from several readers who were frustrated with this particular service because I guess it changed quite a bit in its first year or so, altering strategies about when to buy and sell around special dividends. Hopefully they’ve got a good strategy in place now. The last time I looked at this one was when they were recommending Palm for its special dividend, which would have sunk you (at least so far) — so that lesson is: the company still matters, special dividends aren’t great if the company isn’t also at least somewhat promising.

“Buying the dividend”, by the way, just means buying a stock in time to get the dividend payment and, if you’re like some people, selling it immediately afterward. Some versions of this strategy can be effective, on average, but unless you’ve got tons of money and like paying high taxes it can be easier to have a manager do it for you — that’s what we looked at with the “dividend doubling dynamos” a while back. Not that those ideas or investments are ideal, either, just other options to consider.

But here we are and I’ve not yet addressed this particular teaser. It’s for a special kind of shares made available by America’s best companies, shares that are generally much cheaper and, in many cases, have more growth potential, especially over the short term.

Among the examples given are McDonald’s, which issued 500-b shares on January 25, 2006 and saw them jump 100% in 24 hours.

And Halliburton, which issued 500-b shares on November 15, 2006 and watched them jump 24% in one day.

Sound a little fishy? Nah, that’s just your skepticism talking! Come on over here to the corner and the Gumshoe will whisper the secret in your ear …

Ready? HEY MAN, WE’RE TRYING TO HAVE A PRIVATE CONVERSATION HERE!

Sorry … I think we’re alone now. 500-b shares, I can only tell you because I know you’ll promise to keep it on the down-low, are …

Spinoffs.

Yeah, pretty sexy, huh?

McDonald’s spun off a portion of it’s holdings in Chipotle on that day back in 2006 in an IPO. Halliburton did the same with KBR.

And all the academic papers and citations that back up this secret strategy from the “Dividend Grabber?” Well, that’s all pretty well grounded, too. On average, spinoffs do outperform the broader market.

Folks have speculated that there are several possible reasons for this:

1, that spinoffs can perform better when they can make their own decisions, without having to please a corporate parent who may or may not be in the same business.

2, that parents price spinoffs, when they do sell them as IPOs (instead of dividending the shares out to their own shareholders), fairly nicely to start because they want to get lots of happy share holders and drive the price up (in this case, parents often hold on to a majority of the shares for a while and slowly sell them off).

3, investors often have a chance to buy these cheap, because institutional investors often aren’t interested in the small spinoff and sometimes aren’t allowed to hold it, depending on their guidelines. On the same tack, analysts don’t often cover these companies right off the bat, and the analysts of the parent company might just be happy that dropping the distracting subsidiary will help the greater cause, so the shares can often stay under the radar for a while (not Chipotle, but sometimes).

and 4, that these are simply smaller companies, and smaller companies on average typically outperform — and perhaps the fact that they have the benefit of a larger company’s finanical acumen will help them (or not).

The last part of the teaser is that there’s a particular company he has in mind for his next recommendation:

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“I’ve just uncovered another potential offering of “500-b” shares by one of America’s most well-known consumer goods companies. This $147 billion corporate giant recently filed preliminary paperwork with the SEC, and could offer the shares as early as April 15, 2008.”

That one, should you be so inclined to start investigating, is Altria. They’re spinning off the Philip Morris International division sometime this Spring. That’s not one I would buy so I haven’t looked into it, but feel free to share here if you do so and feel like expounding.

As for the idea of the “500-B” shares, I’m not sure what they’re talking about, frankly, or if they simply made them up. Usually these invented terms have some basis in the filing numbers, SEC regulations, or facts, but I haven’t dug that deeply to discover what basis that might be. There are a couple possibilities that come straight to mind: Firms are generally only required to file with the SEC, whether or not they’ve gone public, if they have more than 500 shareholders (which is partly what spurred the Google IPO to take place when it did); and this could simply be a reference to the S&P 500, as in the “B” shares of these big S&P 500 companies. Or maybe you’ve got a more sensible idea, which I’d love to hear.

Generally, firms will certainly announce a spinoff no matter how they do it, but as I understand it there may not be a special filing required if the spinoff is simply done by dividending out shares to current shareholders, often also called a “carve out.” I might be wrong on that.

If the spinoff is done through an IPO, an offering of the subsidiary’s shares to the public, they should be required to file much the same kind of prospectus as any other IPO — generally that would be an SEC form S-1 filing, which is explained in pretty good detail here by Hoover’s if you’re interested. You can certainly search for S-1 filings through Edgar on the SEC website (use the advanced search, specify form S-1, and add keywords like spinoff or “spin off” to narrow down your search). Mostly, the significant companies that are talked about in this teaser and that are likely going to be covered by the newsletter, if the teaser is any indication, are also going to get pretty heavy press coverage, so I wouldn’t worry much about “missing out.”

So … Short answer: Spinoffs are often good in the long term, and the spun off company usually outperforms. But do note, “often” and “usually” are hard words on which to base individual stock purchases — so I hope it goes without saying that further research into these companies is always a good idea, whether they’re spun off directly to shareholders like Philip Morris International will probably be, IPOd into the market piece by piece like Chipotle, or otherwise freed from the shackles of Mom and Dad.

Happy Investing, all.

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Ed R
Guest
Ed R
March 20, 2008 4:30 pm

Excellent research. Thank you!

Dollie Aubry
Guest
Dollie Aubry
March 20, 2008 6:18 pm

Hello,

Is it true that McDonald’s and Coke are offering 500-b shares very soon this year? I received an email from Daily Wealth on March 20, 2008 stating that Mcdonald’s and Coke are doing that very soon. Is there any way I can find out if that is true because I would like to buy 500-b shares. Any information or advice would be greatly APPRECIATED. THANK YOU DOLLIE

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Dollie Aubry
Guest
Dollie Aubry
March 20, 2008 6:20 pm

BY THE WAY, GREAT JOB ON YOUR RECENT RESEARCH, KEEP UP THE GOOD JOB.

brenda
brenda
March 20, 2008 9:10 pm

Dollie, all those examples were companies that did these kinds of spinoffs in the past, the only current one that’s pending for the future that they mentioned is the Altria spinoff, though companies do this kind of thing fairly regularly, and at least a dozen times a year or so you’ll probably hear about them if you’re listening for this kind of news. If it’s not clear from the article above, these are not special shares of the companies noted, they’re shares of spun off divisions or subsidiaries (in the case of McDonald’s the “500-b” share was Chipotle, I haven’t looked up what Coke’s was (and don’t remember when that took place) but it was probably one of their bottling or international groups.

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👍 7
Mike S
Member
Mike S
March 20, 2008 10:42 pm

What is this forever battery they keep talking
about?

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Sam Custer
Guest
Sam Custer
March 21, 2008 6:48 am

Do you have any info on small companies involved in the China Lake Energy, Geotherm?

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D T
Guest
D T
March 22, 2008 2:12 pm

Beat their April 7th release date…Ha!

Why You Need to Circle ‘April 7th’ on Your Calendar…
Dear Smart Profits Report Reader,

Some of Wall Streets biggest investment banks and hedge funds used to pay our good friend and Senior Analyst at SPR Marc Lichtenfeld’s firm as much as $30,000 a year – just to uncover and provide detailed research on exciting new up-and-coming companies for them.

Now he’s put together a very serious, no-holds-barred research team with one purpose: to provide top-notch investment-firm-quality research on companies with 10-to-1 potential returns or better. Only instead of doing this research for the big guys – he’s doing it exclusively for non-institutional folks like you and me.

(Not a bad start either, with subscribers reporting up to 2,650% gains on one of his very first picks for us…)

That’s why April 7th is the day to circle on your calendar. That’s the day a select number of individuals will be invited to a private conference call to learn about a tiny $4.75-per-share company that could revolutionize the way doctors identify and treat many forms of skin cancer.

Marc’s research suggests this little company could be worth $59 a share near term – and grow to $196 over the next 24 months

For all the details – and to learn how you can get immediate access to Marc’s complete research report on this little company – please read the report below.

But hurry.

For reasons you’re about to discover, only 475 individuals can ever get the report… or be allowed to take part in April’s call.

Sincerely,

Martin Denholm
Managing Editor, Smart Profits Report

Get The Full Details

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Ponce Nilo
Ponce Nilo
March 22, 2008 7:02 pm

Other than spin-offs there is a real 500-B shares of Berkshire. Buffet was worried that someone will issue an ETF-like stock that mimics Berkshire whose stock was around $100,000/share. So Berkshire issued B shares @ around $3000/share. Its B share is more affordable but has no voting right and can not be converted to A share. Well, @ $3000 a pop that is still very expensive for me although it is only 3% of the A share price. So in theory, other companies whose shares is around $100 could issue B shares for pennies. Spinoffs is done two ways, one to release extra baggage of a particular division or the other to extract the true value of a profitable division. Sometimes the spinoff is short-live if it is doing so good that the mother company buys it back as a subsidiary. My memory is failing but I think National Coal did this.

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Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
March 22, 2008 8:49 pm

As a “backdoor” way to invest in Berkshire A, consider the Fairhome Mutual Fund (FAIRX), currently about $30.50 a unit. It holds about $1.35 Billion of Bershire A. Go to http://quote.yahoo.com, put in the symbol FAIRX. look at the max time frame of their chart and witness a BEAUTIFUL equity curve growth, with a 5 year 18.29% avg annual return, consistently #1 or #2 in the Large Blend Fund category.

Patricia
Guest
Patricia
March 24, 2008 2:11 pm

Please reply back.

Thanks

jay
Guest
March 24, 2008 9:06 pm

Thanks for all you do. Your blog provides a tremendous public service. I’m totally addicted.

Turz
Guest
Turz
March 27, 2008 4:39 am

The “500” refers to S&P-500, they say that somewhere in the newsletter.

And for those who wonder what’s “America’s New Currency” (following newsletter) it’s just ADRs.

StuckinVA
Guest
StuckinVA
March 27, 2008 10:13 am

Mike S. The “Forever-Battery” that’s being pushed recently, I believe is from a company called mPhase Technologies Inc. (OTCBB: XDSL). Everything seems to match. Quite a few good articles out on it in the past month or so also. Their subsidiary that’s been working with the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center is AlwaysReady, Inc.

Does anyone out there in GumshoeLand know anything else about this technology and/or the company mPhase/AlwaysReady, Inc.?

Gumshoe… Your thoughts??

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JOHN
Member
JOHN
March 27, 2008 10:20 am

THE “FOREVER” BATTERY THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IS CALLED A NANOBATTERY. IT’S MADE BY mPHASE TECHNOLOGY (OTCBB:XDSL). AT THE TIME OF THIS WRITING, IT’S SELLING FOR 0.09 PER SHARE. THEY ARE DUE TO HAVE A PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION IN NY. ON APRIL 3 2008. CHECK IT OUT!

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brenda
brenda
March 29, 2008 10:11 am

Barron’s is quite enthusiastic about the Altria spinoff, FYI — if you subscribe today’s article is here. http://online.barrons.com/article/SB120675306208973587.html?mod=djemWR

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Myron Martin
Guest
Myron Martin
April 13, 2008 5:47 pm

I have received some spinoffs from stocks I held but I can not recall even one that has to date made me any real money.

The Gumshoe has reported on BIG CAT energy (BCTE) which is still underwater for me and I have recently received notice that they are spinning off to shareholders their holdings in oil and gas leases supposedly to better concentrate on their extraction process which so far seems to have gone nowhere.

One of the major investors in establishing BIG CAT originally was Mike Schaeffer whose Angel Publishing services had several newsletters whose names I would rather forget as about half of my losing stocks over the past year or so came from them! Wonder where Mike disappeared too?

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Mark
Guest
Mark
April 29, 2008 9:38 pm

Great job, Gumshoe!

Joe Cruz
Joe Cruz
May 13, 2008 10:29 pm

I was wondering what you think of the motley fool vs. the stanesbury research guys.? I’m a new samll investor and want to get off on the right foot. I’m so glad i found you guys.

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Scorp1107
Guest
Scorp1107
September 9, 2008 3:35 pm

Hey Gum,,THANKS for your research !!!!:):)

Do you know anything about Trading Concepts Inc. ???? Aka Todd Mitchell
OR
E mini Trading System, by the same crew
Thanks scorp1107

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Bernard Timothy Basso
Guest
Bernard Timothy Basso
February 20, 2019 2:14 pm

How do i receive my dividends since 31st march, 2008

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