Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of May 30

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending May 30. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week                          Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): now CAD 1.10 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 1.06. BMO Financial (BMO): now CAD 1.63 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 1.59. CSB Bancorp (CSBB): now $0.41 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.40. Donaldson (DCI): now $0.30 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.27. EOG Resources (EOG): now $1.02 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.97. EQB (EQB:CA): now $0.53 … Read more

An Important Measure of Leverage for Dividend-Growth and Income-Oriented Shareholders, One That Is Dividend-Adjusted

As more and more investors rely on company dividends for income, dividends, in our view, have become more debt-like commitments in nature, especially from the perspective of dividend-growth or income-oriented shareholders. Years ago, we rolled out a measure of financial leverage that considers both the company’s debt and the present value of its future expected cash dividend obligations, which, in the eyes of die-hard dividend-growth or income-oriented shareholders, may be implicitly assumed to be debt-like commitments in substance. We think this leverage ratio can be used in conjunction with the Dividend Cushion ratio to gain additional insight into the dividend-paying financial health of an entity. Note: There is often great confusion with respect to published measures of financial leverage, and … Read more

Paper: Value and Momentum Within Stocks, Too

Please select the image below to download, “Value and Momentum Within Stocks, Too:” Abstract: This paper strives to advance the field of finance in four ways: 1) it extends the theory of the “The Arithmetic of Active Management” to the investor level; 2) it addresses certain data problems of factor-based methods, namely with respect to value and book-to-market ratios, while introducing price-to-fair-value ratios in a factor-based approach; 3) it may lay the foundation for academic literature regarding the Valuentum, the value-timing, and ultra-momentum factors; and 4) it walks through the potential relative outperformance that may be harvested at the intersection of relevant, unique and compensated factors within individual stocks. To download the full report, please click here (pdf). ———- Actual results … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of May 31

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending May 31. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week                          BMO Financial (BMO): now CAD 1.55 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 1.51. BW LPG (BWLP): now $1.00 per share dividend. Donaldson (DCI): now $0.27 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.25. Euro Tech Holdings (CLWT): now $0.08 per share special dividend, was $0.06. Flanigan’s (BDL): now $0.50 per share dividend, was $0.45. Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (LOW): now $1.15 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.10. … Read more

You Already Own Whatever Your Investment Will Pay You in Dividends

“Business owners across the world know that their business is not more or less valuable because they paid themselves a higher distribution this quarter.” – Brian Nelson, CFA Image Source: Images Money Stocks are generally valued on the present value of all their future free cash flows, which already include future dividend payments. A company’s dividend policy may impact an investor’s eagerness to pay a higher price for shares on the basis of a higher yield, but the dividend is a symptom of future free cash flows (and therefore intrinsic value), not a driver behind it. where A (t) is an Enterprise Free Cash Flow (1) at year t,                 B (0) is a Total Debt at time 0,                 … Read more

Waste Management’s Pricing Power Is Fantastic, Sustainability Initiatives Are Noble

Image Source: TheInvertedFan By Brian Nelson, CFA Industry economics in the municipal solid waste industry are generally easy to understand. Industry pricing power essentially emanates from disposal operations. Waste generated, for example, must end up somewhere, and therefore whichever entity has the disposal operations has the power to set the bar with respect to pricing, directly or indirectly, from transfer facilities all the way through collections within certain regions. After all, garbage pick-up operators won’t be in business for long if they have to pay more to dispose of waste than they charge to pick it up. It may not be a glamourous business, but it is a very good one, and those with disposal operations tend to rule the … Read more

3 Substantial Benefits of Dividend Growth Investing

Dear members: There are three primary benefits of a well-executed dividend growth strategy, one that is carried out with prudence and care and one that pays careful attention to the intrinsic value of the stock and its critical cash-based components. Albert Einstein is reported to have called compound interest the “eighth wonder of the world,” but dividend growth investing has the potential to offer long-term investors so much more! Let’s explain. 1) Reinvested Dividends Compound Over Time Over the past decade, I have grown to appreciate the compounding dynamics of reinvested dividends on appreciating stocks even more than historical studies have revealed. The strategy of dividend growth investing not only benefits from the reinvestment of dividends into the purchase of … Read more

There Will Be Volatility

By Brian Nelson, CFA Last year, 2022, was a big test for equity investors, and the downside volatility that we witnessed during the year wasn’t comfortable, to say the least. Following the COVID-19 crash and rebound during 2020, and then the market surge in 2021, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say many investors’ heads are probably still spinning from all the volatility witnessed to start this decade. That said, part of what we’ve been warning about the past few years with respect to the equity market, especially in Value Trap, is that the proliferation of price-agnostic trading (e.g. quant, machine/algorithmic trading, etc.) will only lead to more and more market volatility, so while we were somewhat surprised by last … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week of May 26

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending May 26. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week                          American Tower (AMT): now $1.57 per share quarterly dividend, was $1.56. Autoscope Technologies (AATC): now $0.26 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.12. Bank of Montreal (BMO): now CAD 1.47 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 1.43. Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): now CAD 1.06 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD 1.03. Canadian Imperial Bank (CM): now CAD 0.87 per share quarterly dividend, was CAD … Read more

How the Payment of a Dividend Impacts Intrinsic Value Estimation

  “Dividends are a transfer of cash to the shareholders that the shareholders already owned.” By Brian Nelson, CFA Many investors use the strategy of dividend growth investing as a means to generate increasing income in their retirement portfolios to stay ahead of inflation, or as a means to grow an income stream in the decades before retirement. Though we think such a strategy has tremendous merit, we think it’s important for readers to understand the mechanics of how a cash dividend payment impacts the valuation (intrinsic worth) of a company. How the Payment of a Dividend Impacts Valuation (Intrinsic Worth) In this article, let’s walk through the valuation adjustments we perform when a company pays a dividend to hammer … Read more