The market has been weak in the last few days on a number of worries. One of them has been earnings. We think that despite a couple of warnings and misses, earnings in general for the fourth quarter of 2005 are going to look pretty decent.

It has a phenomenal record -- it's up to 49 consecutive years of dividend increases -- one of strongest records that we're aware of.

They were buying those shares to offset the shares they had issued in conjunction with the issuance of options. It was, shall we say, a bit misleading.

Avoid buying the highest-yielding stock in any one particular group, for that is often indication the market has beaten down the shares on fears of a dividend cut. It's better to buy something with more modest current yield and a good track record of increasing dividends.

What is a dividend but your payment as an owner of the company? If you don't get that, then the only way you can profit from your investment is to sell all of it or part of it.

We like it even though the stock has been weak recently.