STOCK: Common V. Preferred V. Hybrid Securities

BY DR. DAVID EDWARD MARCINKO; MBA MEd CMP™

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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Common Stock versus Preferred Stock

A common stock is the least senior of securities issued by a company.  A preferred stock, in contrast, is slightly more senior to common stock, since dividends owed to the preferred stockholders should be paid before distributions are made to common stockholders. 

However, distributions to preferred stockholders are limited to the level outlined in the preferred stock agreement (i.e., the stated dividend payments).  Like a fixed income security, preferred stocks have a specific periodic payment that is either a fixed dollar amount or an amount adjusted based upon short-term market interest rates.  However, unlike fixed income securities, preferred stocks typically do not have a specific maturity date and preferred stock dividend payments are made from the corporation’s after tax income rather than its pre-tax income.  Likewise, dividends paid to preferred stockholders are considered income distributions to the company’s equity owners rather than creditors, so the issuing corporation does not have the same requirement to make dividend distributions to preferred stockholders. 

Preferred Stock

Thus, preferred stock is generally referred to as a “hybrid” security, since it has elements similar to both fixed income securities (i.e., a stated periodic payments) and equity securities (i.e., shareholders are considered owners of the issuing company rather than creditors). 

Hybrid Securities

Convertible preferred stocks (and convertible corporate bonds) are also considered hybrid securities since they have both equity and fixed income characteristics.   A convertible security whether a preferred stock or a corporate bond, generally includes a provision that allow the security to be exchanged for a given number of common stock shares in the issuing corporation. The holder of a convertible security essentially owns both the preferred stock (or the corporate bond) and an option to exchange the preferred stock (or corporate bond) for shares of common stock in the company. 

Thus, at times the convertible security may behave more like the issuing company’s common stock than it does the issuing company’s preferred stock (or corporate bonds), depending upon how close the common stock’s market price is to the designated conversion price of the convertible security.

EDUCATION: Books

SPEAKING: Dr. Marcinko will be speaking and lecturing, signing and opining, teaching and preaching, storming and performing at many locations throughout the USA this year! His tour of witty and serious pontifications may be scheduled on a planned or ad-hoc basis; for public or private meetings and gatherings; formally, informally, or over lunch or dinner. All medical societies, financial advisory firms or Broker-Dealers are encouraged to submit a RFP for speaking engagements:

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STOCK DIVIDENDS: Company Earnings Distribution

BY DR. DAVID EDWARD MARCINKO; MBA MEd CMP™

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SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

DEFINITION

If the definition of a security is title to a stream of cash flows, then the dividends a company is expected to pay to equity shareholders on a periodic basis (e.g., quarterly) are a clear source of return for an investor.  A dividend is simply a distribution of (some portion of) the company’s earnings to equity shareholders.  Like a bond yield, a stock’s dividend yield can be used to measure the income return on the stock. 

To determine a stock’s dividend yield, the trailing year’s dividends per share paid are divided by the current stock price.  However, a key difference between a dividend yield and a bond yield is the level of certainty that can be assumed regarding future payments, since a bond’s coupon is generally predetermined and its payment is expected to be senior to the payment of dividends.

After a company has determined that it has earned a profit, management has to decide what to do with those profits.  One choice is to distribute the earnings to shareholders in the form of dividends, while another option is to reinvest the profits in the company.  A company’s management may determine that the shareholders interest is best served by using the earnings to pursue growth opportunities (e.g., capital expansion, research & development, etc.) at the corporate level.  Thus, when management believes that its investment opportunities are likely to produce a higher return than what investors’ could generate with their dividends or that reinvestment is needed to maintain its financial strength, the company will retain the earnings. 

One of the biggest myths in investing is capital appreciation accounts for the largest part of investors’ gains. Dividends, or cash payments to shareholders, actually account for a substantial part of an equity investor’s total return. In fact since 1926, dividends have accounted for more than 40% of the total return of the S&P 500 stock index. In the last decade (2000-2009), the S&P 500’s total return of -9% would have been a heftier loss of -24% had it not been for the 15% contribution from dividends.

History has shown that dividends have been a powerful source of total return in a diversified investment portfolio, especially during periods of market turbulence. In examining the prior eight decades of stock market performance, dividends often account for more than 2/3 of the total return (1930s, 1940s, 1970s, & 2000s).  If an investor avoided dividend paying stocks during these elongated time periods, most of the total gains would be lost. 

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DIVIDEND CONTRIBUTION OF S&P 500 RETURN BY DECADE   
 S&P 500 CumulativeDividendsAverage 
 Price %DividendTotal% of TotalPayout 
YearsChangeContribution*ReturnReturnRatio** 
       
1930s-41.9%56.0%14.1%>100%90.1% 
1940s34.8%100.3%135.0%74.3%59.4% 
1950s256.7%180.0%436.7%41.2%54.6% 
1960s53.7%54.2%107.9%50.2%56.0% 
1970s17.2%59.1%76.4%77.4%45.5% 
1980s227.4%143.1%370.5%38.6%48.6% 
1990s315.7%117.1%432.8%27.0%47.6% 
2000s-24.1%15.0%-9.1%>100%35.3% 
2010s27.9%8.4%36.3%23.1%28.4% 
as of 12/31/12      

Source: Strategas

During those decades such as the 2000s where the stock market struggled to advance, dividends were a significant element for investor survival.  This is not only due to the dividends alone, but also the risk element of stocks that pay dividends.  Dividend stocks have historically provided lower overall volatility and stronger downside protection when markets decline. Since 1927, dividend stocks have consistently held up better than the broader market during downturns. You can measure downside risk through a statistic known as downside capture ratio.

Downside capture ratio is a statistical measure of overall performance in a down stock market. An investment category, or investment manager, who has a down-market ratio less than 100 has outperformed the index during a falling stock market. 

For example, a down-market capture ratio of 80 indicates that the portfolio measure declined only 80% as much as the index during the period. The downside capture ratio of high-dividend-yielding stocks, since 1927, has been 81% or lower over various long-term periods.  Put a better way, during months that the S&P 500 stock index fell, dividend stocks declined by nearly 19% less than the broader market.

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DOWNSIDE AND UPSIDE CAPTURE RATIOS OF HIGH DIVIDEND STOCKS – 1927 TO 2011  
The lower the number, the better    
                                                                            Downside 
                                                                              Capture Ratio 
   
Since 192781.53 
50-year67.45 
30-year65.86 
20-year65.83 
10-year81.61 
   

Source: Kenneth French as of 12/31/11

EDUCATION: Books

SPEAKING: Dr. Marcinko will be speaking and lecturing, signing and opining, teaching and preaching, storming and performing at many locations throughout the USA this year! His tour of witty and serious pontifications may be scheduled on a planned or ad-hoc basis; for public or private meetings and gatherings; formally, informally, or over lunch or dinner. All medical societies, financial advisory firms or Broker-Dealers are encouraged to submit a RFP for speaking engagements: CONTACT: MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com 

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BEWARE FINANCIAL ADVISORS: ChatGPT and A.I. is Coming for Your Job?

Finance Jobs (Financial Analysts, Personal Financial Advisors and Consultants, etc.)

By Staff Reporters

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SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

“The informed voice of a new generation of fiduciary advisors for healthcare”

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Like market research analysts, financial analysts, personal financial advisors, and other jobs in personal finance that require manipulating significant amounts of numerical data can be affected by Artificial Intelligence, Mark Muro, a researcher at The Brookings Institute, said recently.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

“AI can identify trends in the market, highlight what investments in a portfolio are doing better and worse, communicate all that, and then use various other forms of data by, say, a financial company to forecast a better investment mix.” 

These analysts make a lot of money, he said, but parts of their jobs are auto-matable.

READ HERE: https://tinyurl.com/4zk5ert7

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