02-29-2020, 09:10 PM
(02-29-2020, 10:01 AM)fenders53 Wrote: The following is a little off topic but relevant IMO. I want to be invested in a company that will throw me a bone when they can. Special dividends actually make more sense to me for cyclical companies, rather than running your normal dividend up and then allowing it to choke you. Ford is actually a good and bad example at the same time. Yes their future looks bleak, very bleak. The whole industry has been bleak off and on since forever. They will cut their dividend to zero, then pay a large special "surprise" dividend when they can. Some would argue they should just pay a very low and sustainable dividend. They can't do that now, or the share price will visit $2. Point is, it's not easy managing shareholder distributions in a highly cyclical industry.
I still wonder why companies don't do both. I kinda like the European way where a company usually pays out a certain percentage of EPS rather than automatically aiming to increase it every single year. It just offers the company a lot more flexibility. Of course the US way offers investors a bit more safety and predictability.
But why not combine both? There is nothing stopping companies from paying a low, sustainable, slightly growing quarterly dividend (US style) and then paying an additional dividend annually based on the last year's profits and their current cash situation. It would be a perfect mix of the two, offering shareholders some income consistently and allowing the company a lot more flexibility.
I only know of one company (PGR) that does this. And it's fantastic, even if the current quarterly dividend is super low and they just started doing this so we don't really have any idea about the scope of those quarterly dividend increases.