Wow, has anyone seen this? Search for a certain stock and you get a AJAX-y chart and some really cool aggregated information. The stock chart has indicators of the listed news event associated with the links for the stock. This looks like someone at Google has studied event study analysis. Here is a list of dividend funds.
Apparently not. According to the Google (GOOG) investors relation page:
No, we have never declared or paid a cash dividend nor do we expect to pay any dividends in the foreseeable future.
Here is a quasi-comprehensive list of dividend announcements:
Stocks on average have higher dividend payouts then they did this time last year. Shirley Lazo writes:
Dividend boosts and extra payouts both increased in the first quarter of 2006.
By Standard & Poor’s reckoning, 626 companies, among the approximately 7,000 publicly owned corporations that report distributions to its Dividend Record, hiked their payouts. That represented a 5.4% gain over the 594 enhancements in January-March 2005 and a 23.2% gain over the 508 in the comparable 2004 span.
Bonus payouts jumped 12%, to 103 from 92. This number includes payments from companies that might have raised their regular dividends, but because of considerable cash could pay an extra, as well. It also includes companies that regard an extra as a safer bet for their image and stock price than a commitment to a higher dividend that they’re not confident of sustaining.
S&P counted a total of seven resumed dividends in the quarter, against nine a year ago.
Those well-versed in dividend stocks know that right before a payout, the share price of a stock will fall to compensate (or equivalently, will rise before the dividend date above fundamental value). Some asked:
When I get a dividend from my mutual fund, the share price of the fund drops almost proportionately with the amount of the dividend. When I receive a 5 percent dividend, the value of a $10 share drops to $9.50. What have I gained?
During the year, some of the stocks in the mutual fund portfolio may earn dividends. Some of the bonds and cash instruments may earn interest. The fund manager may sell some of the stocks, bonds and other securities in the fund during the year, replacing them with others.
If the fund manager sells the securities for more than he paid to buy them, the fund, in tax jargon, ‘’realizes’’ a capital gain.
When any of this happens - the fund receives a dividend or interest, or realizes a capital gain - the fund’s share price, all other things being equal, will generally go up to reflect the money the fund has earned. That’s the good part. The bad part is, somebody has to pay taxes on all the money the fund is earning, and that’s you.
A hot potential European IPO is the Irish airline Aer Lingus. They have scared some investors away by announcing that they will not initially pay dividends:
Aer Lingus management has no plans for the company to pay a dividend to shareholders, if and when the airline is floated on the Irish Stock Exchange this year.
The company and its advisers instead want to sell Aer Lingus to investors as a growth story, in keeping with the company’s five-year business plan to spend €2 billion on doubling the size of its long-haul fleet and increasing capacity on its short-haul routes by 55 per cent.
There is nothing wrong with a newly public company deciding to hold its cash for investment and start-up costs. In fact, dividends are much more prevelant in older, established firms that have cash to spare and less new investment to fund.
The Dow Jones has a comprehensive list of dividends schedules for the ex-dividend date of April 11th.