U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (SLCA), Cal-Maine Foods Inc (CALM), Automatic Data Processing (ADP): These Stocks Aren’t Cool, and That’s Pretty Cool

Right now Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) yields 2.4% with a 56% payout ratio. In the past 5 years dividends have grown at a CAGR of 8.7%. The company began paying a dividend in 1983. Over the past 20 years the company has only neglected to pay a dividend in two quarters.

Net income from continuing operations has grown at a steady rate. During the five year period of 2008-2012 average net income from continuing ops was $1.27 billion. In the 2003-2007 period the average figure was $831.9 billion.

Conclusion

Anyone who wants to take a stab at picking their own stocks owes it to themselves to read Peter Lynch’s wonderful book One Up on Wall Street. Contained within its pages is the investing philosophy of a true master.

Lynch loved companies that had a name, or operated in a line of business, that was boring. That’s because the market often fails to take notice of boring companies for a long time.

After all why should boring companies even be on the radar of the big shot institutional investors when they could be following the most popular companies on the market such as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) or Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)?

Not to say that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are bad investments. It’s just that in the world of investing you will find more promising opportunities among boring, unknown companies than you will among flashy and exciting ones.

Fool blogger Ryan Palmer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Automatic Data Processing. The Motley Fool owns shares of U.S. Silica Holdings (NYSE:SLCA).

The article These Stocks Aren’t Cool, and That’s Pretty Cool originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Ryan Palmer.

Ryan is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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