"Give me a K!"

K is the stock symbol for Kelloggs! So far, Kelloggs has the most easily accessible Direct Purchase Plan I've come across in quite some time. With the 30 stocks listed in the previous post, most will allow you to join their Dividend Reinvestment Plan by either already being a shareholder or making an initial purchase of anywhere from $250 to $1,000 via their transfer agent. With Kelloggs the initial purchase is a mere $50! (their transfer agent is Wells Fargo) After that initial purchase, you are allowed to make additional monthly investments of $25. Other than when you sell the stock the only fee is a $10 startup fee which is included in the initial purchase of $50; everything else is totally free or, more accurately stated, paid for by Kelloggs. The only way cheaper I know of to obtain a share of K to get started in the plan would be to join BetterInvesting.org (for $50) then use their Low Cost Investment Program which charges only a $7.00 fee but that option also includes paperwork and having to use snail mail and waiting. I'll opt for the $10 route which, in fact I did upon reading the fees in Kelloggs Prospectus and some quick research.

I already had a reasonably favorable opinion of Kelloggs but a couple things really stood out. First, according to MorningStar, K's business risk level was Below Average and even though it only ranked 3 out of 5 stars on MorningStar's rating system, I noticed a graph of the companies 10 year performance compared to the S&P 500. If you had invested $10,000 in the S&P500 then after 10 years you would have ended up with close to $10,000 but the same investment in Kelloggs would give you a balance of nearly $20,000.
Now, granted, money doubling in 10 years only requires an annual rate of return of about 7.2% and Kelloggs average 10 year return was 7.1% so I'm kind of looking at this stock as sort of a beefy savings account. That's one way of looking at it but more-so, it looks like large cap stocks are on their way back into favor after being left in the dust the better part of this decade by small and mid caps. Also, the fact that the YTD return on K is currently at 18.0% with a 3 year trailing return of 17% is somewhat favorable as well.
Even Warren Buffet is getting back into the game with Large Caps stocks as evident through his recent purchases of Conoco Phillips, General Electric and UPS after spending so many years on the sideline and watching the market.

Keeping in mind this site is for "normal" people and not trust fund babies with $10,000 per month in extra disposable income I'd say Kelloggs could be an excellent start for someone just looking to get into the world of investing or stock junkies like me who love a great value with a superb company.

Kelloggs currently has 14 analysts covering their stock with 8 giving it a Strong Buy, 4 giving it a Moderate Buy and 3 saying Hold which pretty much how the recommendations have been for the last 3 months.

What a deal! 10 bucks to cover all the initial cost and enrollment, then free stock purchases for as long as you want!