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V.F. Corp. VFC, the maker of popular apparel brands, including The North Face, Timberland, Vans and Dickies, lowered its quarterly dividend by 41% when it announced its quarterly results on Feb. 7. In the company’s earnings press release, interim CEO Benno Dorer said V.F. was shifting priorities “by reducing the dividend, exploring the sale of noncore assets, cutting costs and eliminating nonstrategic spend, while enhancing the focus on the consumer through targeted investments.”

V.F. Corp’s stock is still up 4% this year, and the shares have only fallen slightly since the dividend cut was announced. Then again, the stock is down 52% from a year ago, with dividends reinvested. CFRA analysts upgraded the stock to a “buy” rating on Feb. 8, writing in a note to clients that “downside risk is limited for shares at these levels and expect Vans to return to growth in FY 24.”

What makes this a fascinating example of a company cutting its dividend is that V.F. is included in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index XX:SP50DIV. This index is made up of all the companies in the benchmark S&P 500 SPX that have raised their regular dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index is reconstituted annually and rebalanced to be equally-weighted quarterly. So next January, V.F. Corp will be removed from the list.

Continuing with the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, it makes no difference how high a stock’s current dividend yield might be. Among the 67 Aristocrats, yields range from 0.28% (West Pharmaceutical Services WST ) to 5.23% (Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. WBA ).

The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF NOBL is weighted to match the holdings and performance of the index. NOBL has a dividend yield of 2.3%, compared with a yield of 1.5% for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY.

So even though NOBL has a higher dividend yield than SPY does, it is really a long-term growth strategy. Here are total returns for both for the past five years, with dividends reinvested:

SPY has outperformed NOBL over the past five years, and maybe this should not be a surprise because of the remarkable run-up for the largest technology companies through the bull market through 2021. Another reason for SPY’s outperformance is that its annual expenses come to a low 0.0945% of assets under management, compared with an expense ratio of 0.35% for NOBL.

NOBL was established in October 2013, so we don’t yet have a 10-year performance record. Let’s go back to the indexes. For 10 years, the S&P 500 has come out slightly ahead, with a total return of 232% against a 229% return for the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.

Now look at a 15-year chart for the indexes:

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, as a group, have shown that this has been a viable growth strategy for a 15-year period that has included several market cycles. It has also required patience, underperforming during the liquidity-driven bull market through 2021.

If you hold shares of NOBL over the long term, your dividend yield based on your original cost will rise, as the companies increase their payouts. But there are various strategies used by mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to produce more income. These articles include examples covered recently:

But many investors still wish to hold their own stocks with high yields to produce regular income. For these investors, the risk of dividend cuts is an important consideration. A drastic dividend cut might mean you need to replace lost income. It can also crush a stock price, making it difficult to decide whether to get out immediately or wait for the share price of a dividend cutter to recover.

What can you do to protect yourself from the possibility of a dividend cut?

One way is to look at projected free cash flows. A company’s free cash flow (FCF) is its remaining cash flow after capital expenditures. It is money that can be used to pay dividends, buy back shares, expand or for other corporate purposes that will hopefully benefit shareholders.

If we divide a company’s expected FCF per share for a 12-month period by its current share price, we have an estimated FCF yield. This can be compared with the dividend yield to see whether or not there is “headroom” to increase the dividend. The more the headroom, the less likely it may be that a company will be forced to lower its payout.

For most companies in the financial sector, especially banks and insurers, FCF information isn’t available. But in these heavily regulated industries, earnings per share can be a useful substitute to make similar headroom estimates. We also used EPS for real-estate investment trusts that engage mainly in mortgage lending.

For real estate -investment trusts that own property and rent it out (known as equity REITs), we can make similar use of funds from operations (FFO), a non-GAAP figure commonly used to gauge dividend-paying ability in the REIT industry. FFO adds depreciation and amortization back to earnings, while netting-out gains on the sale of property. This can be taken further with adjusted funds from operations (AFFO), which subtracts the estimated cost to maintain properties the REITs own and rent out.

In the case of V.F. Corp, the company’s annual dividend payout before the cut on Feb. 7 was $2.04 a share, which would have made for a yield of 7.15%, based on the closing price of $28.52 that day. Analysts polled by FactSet expect the company’s FCF per share for calendar 2023 to total $1.98, for an estimate FCF yield of 6.94%. So the company wasn’t expected to be able to cover the dividend yield with free cash flow this year.

Much more went into V.F. Corp.’s decision to cut the dividend, but this type of analysis provided a useful indicator.

Even before Intel Corp. INTC announced its weak fourth-quarter results and predicted a difficult first quarter, the company’s dividend yield appeared threatened, because full-year free cash flow estimates for 2023 and 2024 were negative. Intel’s stock has a dividend yield of 5.03% and the company hasn’t announced a dividend cut. But there may be plenty of pressure to make a cut as the company is laying off workers and making other moves to lower expenses.

This inspires a two-year look ahead at expected FCF yields for calendar 2023 and 2024. We’re using adjusted calendar-year estimates from FactSet, because many companies have fiscal years that don’t match the calendar.

For a broad list, we began with the S&P Composite 1500 Index SPX, which is made up of the S&P 500, the S&P 400 Mid Cap Index MID and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index SML. Among the S&P 1500, there are 84 stocks with dividend yields of at least 5.00%.

We then narrowed the list to companies for which consensus estimates for free cash flow per share were available for 2023 and 2024, among at least five analysts polled by FactSet. As explained above, we used EPS for financial firms for which FCF estimates aren’t available and for mortgage REITs, and AFFO for equity REITs.

The first version of the table below included Hanesbrands Inc. HBI in error, because the company had eliminated its dividend on Feb 2, and this wasn’t reflected in the FactSet yield data. Here’s an expanded list of 20 companies that met the screening criteria, with at least 2% headroom above the dividends based on estimates for 2023 and 2024:

Click on the tickers for more about each company.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

All the REITs on the list (UNIT, HPP, EPR, HIW, SRC, OUT, SPG, CTRE, KRC and MAC) are equity REITs. Mortgage REITs are facing difficult times in the rising interest rate environment, as residential lending volume has cratered.

The dividend yields reflect actual payments over the past 12 months. Some energy companies payouts have been split into regular and variable portions. On the table above, there are two examples, Coterra Energy Inc. CTRA and Devon Energy Corp. DVN You can click on these links to read the companies’ own explanations of how their most recent declared dividends were broken down:

This analysis doesn’t encompass dividend cuts that have already been made. For example, AT&T Inc. T cut its dividend by 47% in February 2022 after it completed its deal with Discovery (now Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. WBD ) to shed most of its WarnerMedia segment. AT&T’s current dividend yield of 5.77% appears well-supported by estimated free cash flows for 2023 and 2024.

Another example of a recent dividend-cutter on the list is Simon Property Group Inc. SPG, the mall operator that lowered its payout by 38% during the Covid-19 doldrums in June 2020.

The indicated dividend headroom numbers are significant, but as we saw with Hanesbrands, which was included on an earlier version of this list but had already cut its dividend on Feb. 2, cuts or even elimination of payouts can happen without warning.

If you are interested in any of the stocks listed here, you should do your own research to decide whether or not you expect the companies to remain competitive and to grow their businesses over the next decade.

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Outside of loans from a bank, examples of unsecured debts include medical bills, certain retail installment contracts such as gym memberships,

Source: www.experian.com

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Confused about the differences between studying in the UK and India? From cost to grading and life experience, there are many things to consider when deciding where to study.

For context, here is a brief comparison of schooling ages in India and in the UK.

The Secondary School Certificate is a public examination taken by students after successfully completing at least ten years of schooling in subjects: Languages (English & 1 Regional Language), Social Studies (SST), Mathematics, Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology).

A new 9-point grading system has been introduced for this level, which is as follows: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, D, E1, E2.

The Higher Secondary Certificate is a two-year study in a School in Science/Commerce/Arts streams. Results are awarded in percentages as below:

Bachelor’s Degree in India – involves 3/4 years of study in a university with specialisation in an area like Commerce & Economics, Management, Computing, Arts, Engineering or Science.

Degrees are awarded as:

General Certificate of Secondary Education: Level 2 of the NQF Framework for GCSEs grades A* - C. Students can take up to 9-12 GCSE’s including English and Maths at A*-C level.

GCSE's are available in more than 40 academic and nine 'applied' subjects. The applied subjects are focused on wider areas of work such as engineering. When you take GCSE’s you can achieve pass grades from A* to G. If you don't achieve the minimum pass mark to get a grade G, then a U grade is awarded, which means 'unclassified’.

A-Levels comprise the AS (advanced subsidiary) level and the A2. Each year makes up 50 per cent of the overall A-level grade. This forms level 3 of the NQF qualifications framework.

Colleges of further education and sixth-form colleges also offer academic, technical and vocational courses for people over 16.

Students can also choose to take the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. This programme is an internationally recognised qualification for students aged 16 to 19. It is level 3 of the NQF qualifications framework and is focused on studying a wide variety of subjects, including languages, science, maths, history, arts and geography.

UCAS manages applications to higher education courses in the UK and processes more than two million applications for full-time undergraduate courses yearly. SI-UK uses UCAS for undergraduate applications on behalf of Indian students.

Students can opt to study a Foundation Degree (Level 5 of FHEQ / NQF qualifications framework), a university-level qualification involving the first two years of an honours degree. Upon obtaining a Foundation Degree, students may ‘top-up’ their qualification to an honours degree.

Undergraduate studies in the UK take three years to complete in most cases, leading to a qualification such as a bachelor of arts (BA), or a bachelor of science (BSc) - level 6 of NQF/ FHEQ. You will need a minimum of four years of study if you choose a sandwich program involving practical work accompanied by coursework.

A third or above means you receive a bachelor's degree with honours.

After completing 12 years of education, students can apply for undergraduate programs at universities or colleges. Undergraduate study in India typically consists of a 3-year program for a Bachelor's degree and a 4-year program for a professional degree, such as a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E) or a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS).

Admission is based on the student's performance in their final secondary school examinations, such as the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) or the Indian School Certificate (ISC). Some programs may also have additional entrance exams or require minimum grades in specific subjects.

After completing an undergraduate degree, students can study for a postgraduate diploma, postgraduate certificate or the more traditional Master's degree. Different types of postgraduate programmes include:

Grades are normally awarded as follows:

A doctorate qualification or Research degree (Level 8 of the NQF/ FHEQ qualifications framework) allows you to undertake an original piece of research. Completing a PhD usually takes at least three years of full-time study. Doctorates are normally awarded as either a pass or fail and sometimes with a distinction.

Postgraduate study in India typically consists of a 2-year program for a Master's degree and a 3-year program for a professional degree, such as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) or a Master of Technology (M.Tech).

To be eligible for postgraduate study, students must have completed an undergraduate degree from a recognised university or college in India. Admissions to postgraduate programs are based on the student's performance in their undergraduate degree and their scores on entrance exams like the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for technical programmes or the Common Admission Test (CAT) for management programs.

A PhD in India typically takes 3-5 years to complete, depending on the field of study and the candidate's research progress. To be eligible for a PhD in India, a student must have completed a Master's degree from a recognised university or college. PhD students are typically required to submit a thesis or dissertation representing their original research and making a significant contribution to their field of study.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) provides syllabuses for years S3-S6 in secondary school. “Standard Grade” courses are taken by students, including studying years S3-S4. These are equivalent to the Indian SSC – 10th STD and UK’s GCSE levels.

Years S5 and S6 are 1-year courses and are harder than GCSEs but easier than A-Level. Therefore, some feel these courses are insufficient training for university, which is why Scottish university degrees generally last for one more year than English universities.

The Advanced Higher is taken by the ablest S6 students, where students focus on one or two subjects. These papers are graded A-E with similar credit value to A-Level in the UK.

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