Dividend: Not So Warm American Greetings

American Greetings Hits 21-Year Lows, Doubling Number of Store Closings

American Greetings(AM Quote) just announced a third quarter loss of $193.3 million, or a loss of $4.25 per share, compared with a profit of $29 million, or 52 cents per share a year earlier.

Revenue slipped 6.5% to $454.1 million from $485.8 million. Management is raising the number of stores it plans to close to 60 or more -- from previous estimates of 25 to 30 stores. Management said the deal to sell the product licenses of Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears to Cookie Jar Entertainment of Toronto after the company was unable to find financing. The licenses have been back up for sale.

We have avoided shares of American Greetings since our early June coverage began, when the stock was trading at $19.87. The company has a 4.83% dividend yield, based on last night's closing stock price of $9.94. The company has broken through historic technical support and is trading without any cushions at this point. If there is any consolidation and the company can rebound, we see overhead resistance in the $9 to $12 area. We would look elsewhere for better investment opportunities.

American Greetings is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com Rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars.

ProLogis Shares Rally on Asset Sale

ProLogis(PLD Quote) shares are up nearly 20% as the company agreed to sell its Chinese operations and the remaining stake in its Japanese property funds to a Singapore government-owned real estate company for $1.3 billion in cash.