I have been paying attention to John's articles since at least 2008.  Since then I have acquired  9 of these stocks.  Prior to 2008 I listened and acted on some of the noise I read about. My lesson was to end up with quite a collection of companies that actually went bankrupt and I lost all my investment. It was quite an accomplishment. Needless to say, I leaned my lesson the hard way. Since 2008 I invest in only dividend stocks.  None in my portfolio have gone under, and its up substantially since 2008/9. It much easier to sleep at night when your portfolio is growing and paying dividends rather then tanking and going out of business.