Improving Investment Returns With The Piotroski Method

When it comes to maximising investment performance, I'm a firm believer that good returns are just as much a result the of shares we don't buy as of those we do. It's easy to put a large dent in the returns from our share investments with just one poor investment decision. So with that in mind, today I'd like to discuss a way which can be used to reduce the number of poor investment decisions which we all make. It's called the Piotroski Method.

The Piotroski Method is a system devised by Joseph Piotroski (of the University of Chicago) as a way of identifying stronger companies from among a group of cheap stocks. The problem with cheap shares is that they are normally cheap for a reason. They are often in poor financial health with poor profitability and in the worst cases are at risk of insolvency.

Best Dividend Paying Shares - The Small Caps

It's time for another 'best dividend stocks' type of post. Last time, in Highest Dividend Paying Stocks In The ASX100, I did just as the title suggests. I scoured the ASX100 looking for shares with the best income potential. While I stressed in that article that more investigative work would need to be done to whittle the list down to a handful of suitable investment candidates, I found the exercise useful and so did a number of readers.

Today's top dividend shares are all small caps. I have used the stocks which make up the S&P ASX Small Ordinaries index as a place to start my search. So based on historic dividend yield alone, I came up with the following list.