Bermuda-registered investment manager W.P. Stewart Ltd. has received a boost from an investment analyst at Internet financial website The Motely Fool.

Zeke Ashton, a guest columnist for the Motely Fool and the managing partner of Dallas, Texas-based money management firm Centaur Capital said: " I first discovered W.P. Stewart a year ago while researching high-dividend-paying stocks for The Motley Fool Select.

"The investment-management company based in Hamilton, Bermuda, certainly qualifies as a high-dividend payer, routinely paying out 60 percent to 80 percent of its reported earnings in dividends every year. But that's just one reason why I now own the stock in every portfolio I manage."

Other reasons, Mr. Ashton said, included the company's average 20.7 percent return on investment since 1974."Even more impressively, in each of the ten annualised periods from July 1, 1992 through June 30, 2002, the company's investment performance has outperformed the S&P500 on both a pre- and post-fee basis," Mr. Ashton said.

"Now let's look at the stock. W.P. Stewart intrigues me as a long-term investment for several reasons. The first is that the company is engaged in a business where exceptionally high profit margins are possible, a quality to which the company's

historic pre-tax operating margins of over 50 percent would attest."

"Even in the face of a horrible market downturn making for the worst industry environment in 30 years, the company's pre-tax profit margin in the second quarter was over 45%. That's amazing. There isn't a scenario short of nuclear war or alien invasion that would cause a company like W.P. Stewart to lose money."

Mr. Ashton concluded: "While I'm not necessarily recommending the shares at the current price (15 times trailing earnings), I don't think it's unreasonably priced. I will consider adding to my position when the price drops to the point where the stock yields above six percent."