We certainly are living in interesting times. As the coronavirus pandemic has spread, the markets have been shifting. This includes the normal staid world of dividend stocks. Since the pandemic gained speed, back in mid-March, there have been more than 150 companies that have either cut, suspended, postponed or revoked announced dividend payouts. This puts income investors in a serious bind: How can you keep track of all the dividend changes and make smart portfolio decisions?
Dividend.com’s new Dividend Policy Status feature can help.
The new feature is designed to automatically track various dividend-related announcements from trusted sources. With the new feature, dividend seekers can instantly see which dividends are cut, suspended, increased or unchanged.
For financial advisors and individual investors, the Dividend Policy Status feature is a vital resource to help keep tabs on your current portfolio or to use in overall portfolio construction.
Harnessing 8K Data
Walt Disney (DIS), Gap Inc. (GPS) and Dunkin Brands (DNKN) are all household names, and they also happen to be some of the firms that have recently made adverse changes to their dividend policies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For many investors, they often find out about a dividend cut or suspension far too late in the process.
Why?
Because most of this information is buried in filings or provided through a multitude of different sources. Whenever a company makes a change to a dividend policy or payout, they need to file an 8K with the SEC. Generally, though, if the news is bad, that’s all they’ll do. Unless it’s reported by the mainstream media, these cuts often go undetected for a period of time.
The real problem comes when investors hold a multitude of individual stocks. This means keeping tabs on various 8Ks, press releases and websites in order to figure out exactly what’s going on with your income stream.
Dividend.com’s new Dividend Policy Status feature can come to your rescue. The feature combs through all the sources and brings this information – both good and bad – directly to our users. With it, our users can easily track various tickers on Dividend.com and eliminate another administrative headache. The focus can be back on core investment research. Advisors can use it to discuss portfolio construction or rebalancing strategies.
A Big Benefit
The real beauty of Dividend.com’s new feature is the ease of use for all manner of users on the site.
The feature will be visible from each individual ticker page. In addition to all the other top-notch data available on Dividend.com, investors will quickly be able to see a stock’s dividend cuts, suspensions, re-initiations of payments and even dividend increases. This allows Dividend.com users to quickly input a ticker and check the status of their income stream or conduct research for a popular dividend stock like Walt Disney, whose dividend was recently suspended.
This is all very important, considering the recent changes to the dividend environment. Speed and ease of information gathering is a necessity.
The Bottom Line
The current crisis has made dividend investing slightly more challenging, thanks to the numerous cuts and suspensions of payouts. With Dividend.com’s new Dividend Policy Status feature, investors can get all the information they need to make informed decisions quickly with regards to a firm’s payout.
