To what extent do you view your investing life
as an extension of your personal life?By that I mean to what extent do the personal morals and ethical values of Tim the man govern the investing decisions of Tim the
dividend growth investor?If you ask your typical
dividend growth investor if they would be willing to invest in a lucrative but immoral venture, say selling child pornography or crack cocaine, the answer would probably be «absolutely not» regardless of the yield, valuation or
growth prospects of the underlying venture.And yet, ask that same
investor what their thoughts are about Phillip Morris and they would probably describe what a wonderful investment it is and go on about why you should own it.Do your personal morals ever come into play when buying companies, or do you compartmentalize your conscience, wall it off from the part of your brain that thinks about investments, and make your investing decisions based on the financial prospects of the company?The reason why I'm asking is that I keep identifying stocks of companies that I love from an investing perspective but despise on a human level.I can not in good conscience own any piece of Phillip Morris knowing the impact that smoking related illness has on the families of smokers.You might say that the smoker made his choice to smoke
so you don't mind taking his money, but his children never made that choice and they are the ones who will suffer when he dies 20 years too soon.
Let's take a closer look to see why Wall Street has become
so negative about Hormel and if now could be a reasonable time for long - term
investors to give the stock closer consideration
as part of a diversified
dividend growth portfolio.