I May Sell Intel

I am thinking about selling Intel. They will pay their next dividend in March, and it will be the seventh time they pay out 22.5 cents per share.

Many dividend investors only invest in stocks that grow their dividend every year. (Some also have criteria including the payout ratio, the growth of the dividend and the yield.) If I stick to that rule, then I should sell Intel.

One issue is I do not know what I will buy. A lot of stocks are still going up and have P/E ratios above 20. If I do not buy something else, I will get less income.

But on the other hand, I think that coming up with some rules and sticking with them is the way to make money. I know that a lot of studies have shown that most active investors do not beat the indexes. I wonder if those studies looked at actual behavior, or if there are any that looked at stratgies. There is a saying on Wall Street: Bears make money, bulls make money, pigs and sheep get slaughtered. So you should plan your work and work your plan. I sometimes think part of the reason that a lot of active investors do not do as well as the market because they do not stick to their plan.

Image from Intel’s Twitter feed, assumed allowed under Fair Use