Since mid-year 2003, the number of stocks that meet our standards for quality and have well-defined profiles of dividend yield [historically, 350] has been steadily diminishing; so much so that our Select Blue Chip universe has been reduced to just 246 companies.

This is not due to a dearth of companies that pay dividends—there are hundreds of dividend-paying companies—but simply paying a dividend does not make a business into a good stock; remember, there is no profitable substitute for quality.

The majority of the recent downgrades are financials, whose Standard & Poor’s Earnings & Quality Rankings have declined below the B+ threshold. I have little doubt that the majority of these companies will return at some point to our regular pages.

Full Story: http://www.moneyshow.com/investing/articles.asp?aid=GURU-19717&iid=GURU