Nuveen Quality Preferred Income Fund 3 (JHP)

A blogger that I frequently get advice from mentioned this closed end fund from Nuveen. He purchased shares as a way to protect his investment should the market take a turn for the worse.

Basically, I am trying to understand how this fund will do that. I can appreciate this fund's monthly dividend which is almost 10 cents per share at the moment, but I found that earnings are subject to federal income tax.

Admittedly, for better or worse, I bought four shares today at $13.08 which is a penny off from the lowest price YTD. Totally an unintelligible, emotion based purchase but the cost was less than $55 so I am not hard pressed. It could be a good decision.

While I wait to see if this is true I will continue to do homework to determine if it warrants more purchases.

MidYear Status

The market has treated me very well overall.

As a new investor, I have made several mistakes, mainly selling EMC, Motorola, and Viasys Healthcare stock too soon as they were still growing. EMC is my biggest regret. Even though I made money I could have made more because the company is signing contract after contract globally.

On the other hand, I have made good calls thanks to advice from Jim Cramer and other bloggers who have good track records.

As of today, my Roth IRA is up almost 13%, and my 401K is up almost 12%.

I am quite happy and will continue to be as long as this market endures. However, it is time to protect my investments because a bear market is sure to take over at some point.

iShares and ETFs may be the way to go, but I am still investigating.

I want to continue to buy several hundred dollars a month of AAPL, COP, and maybe SHLD since the price is down, but I have to begin thinking long term.

Stock Repurchases = Price Growth

I believe Jim Cramer normally gets excited about stock repurchases so this is a sign to continue to buy ConocoPhillips (COP).
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ConocoPhillips Sees 2Q Worldwide Output Below 1Q
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

ConocoPhillips (COP) said Tuesday it expects second-quarter worldwide production to be lower than the first quarter, but worldwide refining margins to be significantly higher.
For the second quarter, ConocoPhillips estimates crude oil and U.S. natural gas prices to be above first quarter levels.
In addition, ConocoPhillips said it anticipates repurchasing about $1 billion of stock in the second quarter.
The Houston energy company also expects a complete impairment of its entire interest in oil projects in Venezuela of about $4.5 billion in the second quarter.

A Quick Update

The month of June has flown by, and I have yet to make a post. I figured it was time to change that so here is a post of where I currently stand.

This month I picked up more ConocoPhillips (COP) stock since the price dipped and then started looking for another venture. While searching the stock market appeared to be losing a bit of steam, and many people are getting nervous, going off of emotion instead of fact.

I do not think I am emotional about the decline. That is the nature of the market. What I am doing is diversifying a bit more by buying bonds. There are a few that have caught my eye, but I still need to understand them more. Do I got with REITs or look for foreign markets related ones?

No rush. I do not plan to buy for a few weeks.

This does not mean I will not continue to buy stock. The best time to buy is when stock prices are low.

ConocoPhillips WebCast

HOUSTON, May 23, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) today announced that Jim Mulva, chairman and chief executive officer, will speak to investors and securities analysts at the Sanford C. Bernstein 23rd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday, May 30, 2007, at 8 a.m. (Eastern Time). The event will be held at The Waldorf Astoria, New York, N.Y.

Investors can access the live webcast of Mulva's presentation at www.conocophillips.com/investor. An archived replay will be available shortly thereafter.

It's that time again

Three companies have caught my attention since I have started to look for long term investments.

Altria (MO), Bank of America (BAC), and ConocoPhillips (COP).

Altria: I wish I owned Altria (formerly Phillip Morris) a few months ago when they spun off Kraft Foods because the company gave away Kraft Food shares to its stockholders.

The target price for this low volitity stock is $85, and it currently trades at $71. Over the past ten years, earnings per share has never gone under $2.20. The company does not carry much long term debt. The stock price dropped considerably at the end of March, but that was went Kraft Foods was spun off so this was probably expected. One downside is that per Standard & Poors the stock is currently overvalued by $4.35.

Bank of America: Bank of America provides international banking services and appears to be a solid, stable, low risk company with a steadily increasing earnings per share.

Due to the large acquisitions it makes every year, BAC has a mountain of long term debt. One reason to own this company over the long term is the dividends it pays out, which is projected to $2.24/share this year.

ConocoPhillips: The company I am more than likely going to purchase stocks from is ConocoPhillips, especially in light of the current increase in gas prices. Right now I have to ask myself, "Is there anything about this company not to like?" Warren Buffet owns it. Can I say more?

COP share's earnings per share last year was $9.99, and this year's estimated EPS is $8.38. It's five year growth rate is 7%. Annual dividend is estimated at $1.64 per share, and the target price is $85.

This is only surface information. There is still so much more to consider.

Understanding Chart Patterns

I also picked up Getting Started in Chart Patterns though it was not my primary target when I when to the bookstore.

Stock charts when you add in all the bells and whistles is almost as foreign to me as greek writing so I figured that I would eventually like to learn to interpret them with some degree of accuracy.

Yet another goal to add to an every-growing list.