03-21-2020, 08:04 PM
(03-21-2020, 07:38 PM)crimsonghost747 Wrote: I guess this is where we separate the good ones from the bad ones, those who planned for an eventual downturn of the economy and those who decided that we are in a forever long bull market.
It's quite horrible to see several companies stop dividend payments right in the beginning of it all. It might be more forward thinking than anything else but I'd be pretty concerned about companies cutting their dividends after a week or two of limited lock downs.
I'm not familiar with how it works in Europe, but I don't think many are too surprised so far. Take a large cap struggling company over the past few years like F, GE, even T. Pension plans are just loaded with their shares. Also employees buying shares at a discount their entire 30-40 career. It was not uncommon for a retiree to have most of his net worth in the same company shares that always pay his pension check. Yes that is profoundly foolish. The dividend is all that matters. They try to maintain it way past when they should have cut it. F at $4 is actually fairly cheap. The stock didn't even dip (yet) when a huge yield went away this week. I would suggest if F had suspended their Div when the stock was $10+, we'd be down here at this SP years ago.
The list of companies with a rock solid balance sheet is about to get a lot shorter if the virus doesn't go away soon.