- Following a year of dividend cuts few companies score well on our screen.
- Many businesses fail our earnings growth forecast requirement, reflecting continued uncertainty.
2020 was one of the worst years in memory for income investors, with a host of major UK-listed companies slashing their payouts to shareholders. Against such a backdrop, it is hardly surprising that only one FTSE All Share company, German focussed Sirius Real Estate (SRE), passes all of our dividend yield tests.
Miner BHP Group (BHP) is the largest company that scores decently but it still comes up short against our strict criteria on forecast earnings growth and dividend cover. These are the same tests failed by some very high-quality businesses such as Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), reiterating the level of uncertainty.
Spread betting companies CMC Markets (CMCX) and IG Group Holdings (IGG) benefitted from volatility and trading activity in 2020 and, while our data shows that they don’t pass our earnings growth test, this year could well see market moves which help their profits and continue to support dividend policies.
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