Crew Capital Management Thoughts on Investment

Welcome to the Crew Capital Management Thoughts on Investment blog. At Crew Capital, investment education is key to how we work with our clients. We hope our conversation and analysis entice you to think further on your investment strategies and planning. For further discussion, please contact us at rjung@crewcapital.com

Thank you!
Robert F. Jung, CFA CPA*

*CPA inactve

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Dividend Cuts on the Horizon

US investors are facing the worst year for dividend cuts since 1938, Standard & Poor’s has forecast, as a growing tally of blue-chip companies across the globe slash pay-outs for investors.

Cash flow is crucial for companies now and their need to conserve cash will outweigh their desire to pay dividends.

JPMorgan took an axe to its dividend last week, while investors in US companies as diverse as Dow Chemical, Motorola and Pfizer and Europe’s insurance groups Axa and Allianz have seen their dividends shrivel.

Such cuts have undermined the rationale that high dividend yields for global benchmarks are a buy signal for equities.

The S&P’s current trailing dividend yield – the past pay-outs of companies as a percentage of market capitalisation – of 4 per cent has been well above that of the 10-year Treasury yield since last year, but already this year the S&P has slumped more than 20 per cent. Consensus estimates for the S&P 500 dividend pay-out for 2009 is 3.49 per cent.

The FTSE 100 yields 5.46 per cent, more than a percentage point higher than at the turn of the year.

However, there has been rising investor concern over whether there could be cuts from BP or Royal Dutch Shell, which comprise 20 per cent of dividends on the index.

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