New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-10-09
Lackawanna and General Electric


Would appreciate your opin-
,o'' Va my list OF stocks; First. Ais
Nha'm preferred and common What
~ ~" 'h'hN OF the safety of the COM
mon Second. Delaware Lackawanna G.
's'eln' is the stock now 800 par, pay
ING 10 per cent dividends? II as 7 ho-
'"e rate mas not been fixed. It's d.
rectors should put 1t on a 10 Der cent on
WV o"s'S then the stock at Sl09 or less
would be bargain would 1t noto 10
o"'0'' racine paying 10 per cent and
solllns around $40 considered better IN
va, way 'hah Delaware, Lackawanna &.
western Third. General Cigar. 1rourth
Iobacco Products Fifth. America, ,,o
oscco. Which of these three tohaa 10
siecks do you deem safest for invest1nent .
3 psciso facihc Gas G. Electric Cor is II
halnesD is this stock rood ~ ~ II
Iicdu IS so nigh 90 per cent? I am won
o orrams whether 1T was a typographical
i1.' S sV'n,ci.' seventh Middle States OIL.
10 you consider this merely another nii
s spd f,,,' or has 1T prospects. present
1ends? Eighth, North Amerjcan w No.
i;,l, The yield is high viii it con
,a,, US ~ dividend. DO you think? Are
nov with new stock. affords Investors
IRE opportunity and safety than with
there tn b seocn nat advantage was
s s IN changing? Ninth. Brooklyn Ed
so 90 y. os mere is preferred is there? At
Tenth WRayiqs ss this is good isn't it.?
tnese good. or Is the common NOT 100 snre
c. Gens g9n''n Ed nt dividends? Eleventh is
house, H T,sc'f s better than Westing
STOCK dividends; what method is used in
suSn transactions when a person owns
o'iS ten shares. for instance Wv. H. B.
Answer-We consider Alls Chalmers
preferred to be good speculative in
vestment and the common a good spec
ulation. The par value OF D. l.. & W.
Railroad stock is $50. The dividend
was formerly 20 per cent, but the dec
laration of the 100 per cent stock divi-
dend recently doubled the amount of
stock outstanding. The directors there
lore reduced the dividend to 10 per cent
making the cash value of the dividend
the same as it was before for each
holder of the old stock. The recent adj
vance OF the stock gives strength to the
report that the dividend rate would be
raised. When the price was 95 we re-
marked in our column that even the
excellent credit of the Lackawanna did
not justify a SIS dividend stock selling
at SO high figure, and implied that
there was possibility of the rate be-
ing changed. Lackawanna is one of the
strongest rail stocks in the market.
AMERICAN Tobacco is easily the best of
the tobacco stocks which you mention,
in our opinion. Pacific Gas & Electric
common is on per cent basis.
mere is first preferred 6 per cent stock
and an original 6 per cent cumulative
preferred. We think the preferred
stocks are a good speculative invest
ment Middle States Oil is specu]a-
tive, in our opinion. We do not
care to say whether we think it is
an attractive speculation, as we
cannot give advice on purely specula-
1--WE stocks. We call the North Amer
lcah Company 6 per cent preferred
stock $3.50 par value) a good business
mans investment. The company has
no funded debt, has paid Der cent
divldend on the common without in
terruption since 1909, serves through
Its subsidiaries approximately $500
square miles and population in ex-
cess Of 100000. The preferred has
equal voting rights with the common.
ne purpose Of the recapita ization was
to make possible the issuance of addi-
tlonal stock in the future if need for
ne" financing ever arises. The pre-
tered stock, we think, will be slightly
better than the old common as an in
vestment. as earnings of the company
should increase through additional
financing, which will probably be part
ly done by issuance Of more common
stock. Larger earnings resulting from
issuing more common stock, of course,
Will apply as equity for the preferred
before the common. There is only one
class of Brooklyn Edison stock. We
consider it q good speculative invest
ment. At current prices we do not be-
lieve that there is much difference be-
tween the attractiveness of Wcsting-
house and General Electric. Both arc
great industrial companies, in whose
future we have good deal of con-
fidence. General Electric recently an
rounced d change in it's stock dividend
policy for the very reason that is
brought out in your question: viz, to
obvate the necessity Of splitting shares
for the small holder. They promise to
pay a stock dividend Of per cent in
the form of special per cent stock
of $40 par value.
Has Some Weak Rails
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