Do Dividend Cuts Offer a Clue to a Bank's Stability?

I received a lot of e-mails from subscribers on Monday after the collapse of Wachovia (WB), asking me which bank I believe will be the next to fail. Most investors are afraid they will wake up next Monday morning with a worthless financial stock, whose deposits have been sold to another institution.

I think that the answer to that question is to simply follow the money. Most of the financial institutions which ended up with stock prices rapidly approaching gravity were in terrible financial condition and as a result their management scrambled to find ways to fund the ongoing operations and cut expenses to the bone. One of the most difficult decisions that most boards had to make was cut the dividends.

Typically most US companies pride themselves for having an uninterrupted record of paying dividends or even better, a long period of uninterrupted increases in their annual payments to stockholders. Thus cutting the dividends to shareholders is usually one of the last resorts to action.

If you look at the records of the financial institutions in the S&P 500 that cut their payments this year, you will find an interesting pattern of dividend cuts and then massive failures. Examples like this include Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), Lehman (LEH), Wachovia and Washington Mutual (WM). In most cases the dividend cut gave shareholders a warning signal at least several months before the failure. Just for the record this strategy isn’t foolproof so don’t bet the bank on it – there will surely be financials which cut their dividends and most probably prosper in the coming good times. It would be interesting to note how the companies in this list perform over the next few years.

So should you be worried about the next bank failure? I think that as long as your portfolio is well diversified you shouldn’t worry too much about day to day news but focus on the big picture and your long term financial goals. Historically it has paid off well to pick up distressed assets at bargain prices during bear markets. In addition to that dollar cost averaging your way into a position is the perfect strategy in a bear market. Check this chart out for the average durations of previous bear markets for reference as well.

Disclosure: Author does not have any positions in the companies mentioned in this article.

Comments

[Ishortyou:]

Wachovia got rid off the prior toxic risky wasted bank subsidiaries and kept the good ones. Now it can start from scratch to build a new banking subsidiary with safe practice together with its remaining good outstanding subsidiaries. The current subsidiaries of Wachovia make it look like “Merrill Lynch without the toxic risky waste”, good job from management it separated the good bank from the bad bank overnight, plus its CEO Bob Steel is one of the top rated mutual fund managers. Wachovia will keep the valuable human resources and the talent that have expirience in the banking business saving them for the new banking subsidiary. Buying the municipal bonds or the auction rate securities will give the inflow of cash as long as its hold even to maturity. Some investors are taking money away from Hedge Funds going wild and putting that money into accounts manage by people that know what they are doing, Bob Steel is one of those people that know what they are doing, dont be surprise some of this money will go to Wachovia subsidiaries. Earnings will be adjusted accordingly, like simple arithmetics they will manage its expenses vs its earnings to come ahead in capital and start piling up cash (saving cash a hard job for most of us that live on debt), this new cash will give them the jump start of a new banking subsidiary without even thinking about to sell its remaining subsidiaries.Forgot to mention that Wachovia owns a hudge Insurance subsidiary which is making money and has sound book of business. Lehman debt is bonds most of them senior, as bankrupt as Lehman is those bonds get paid. ARS are Municipal Bonds as bonds they get paid, hold into maturity they get paid in principal, those ARS are cash flow. Preferred dividends will get paid accordingly because the holding company does not own the banking subsidiaries anymore so modification are going to be made. Getting rid off the toxic waste risky bank related subsidiaries is a good strategy and converting the remaining broker one to a new bank subsidiary with clean sheets is a good one too.

2008 Oct 01 04:02 PM

[william meesit:]

hi friend

2008 Oct 28 04:15 AM