Author Topic: Mer-k stock  (Read 1383 times)

xpro

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Mer-k stock
« on: March 23, 2019, 12:30:14 PM »
Hello Everyone

I've been looking at a unusual stock lately. The price is pretty much always around $25 to $26, and pays a unqualified dividend of 6.45% The price did go down during the recession. How does this stock work? Is it safe to put most of my savings in this?

flipboard

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Re: Mer-k stock
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2019, 12:38:21 PM »
I've been looking at a unusual stock lately. The price is pretty much always around $25 to $26, and pays a unqualified dividend of 6.45% The price did go down during the recession. How does this stock work? Is it safe to put most of my savings in this?
It's safe if you're OK with losing most of your money. (Not saying that will happen.)

A much safer choice is some VT (Vanguard total world ETF).

Laserjet3051

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Re: Mer-k stock
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2019, 12:40:16 PM »
absolutely

Financial.Velociraptor

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Re: Mer-k stock
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2019, 09:08:24 PM »
Hello Everyone

I've been looking at a unusual stock lately. The price is pretty much always around $25 to $26, and pays a unqualified dividend of 6.45% The price did go down during the recession. How does this stock work? Is it safe to put most of my savings in this?


@xpro I can't find MER-K on Yahoo! Finance.  I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that since this issue trades around 25 a share, it is a more or less standard "Preferred share".  That is, it is a hybrid security that is somewhere between equity and a bond.  You'll want to know before investing if 1) this distribution is "cumulative" 2) is the security "callable" and at what price 3) the credit rating of the underlying company.  Preferreds can be excellent for part of your "income" allocation.  I use the closed end fund JPS for my allocation to preferred securities to gain instant diversification and because it can often be purchased at a discount to NAV.  It is currently yielding 7.40%.

I'd be leery of putting "most" of your income investing bucket in a single ticker that is not some type of fund/index/mutual investment.

HTH

doggyfizzle

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Re: Mer-k stock
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2019, 10:17:14 PM »
There are plenty of preferred issues that trade at or near par and pay dividends that are QDI-eligible.  Why would you sink a ton of your stash into a junky-sounding Preferred?  Is this one of the holdover ML TRUPs that BofA hasn’t called yet?