In last weeks’ post I shared that effective January, my portfolio will experience two dividend cuts. Based on how my holdings are structured, the overall impact will be a but a blip. The greater hit is to my pride. Other than M&A or spinoff activity, never have I experienced more than one cut in a year. This, my friends, is with forty years of investing under my belt. And now we have two announcements in the span of one week. Also (and perhaps warranted), The Dividend Guy published a piece that essentially says that, “hey, I might have screwed up on OZK but at least I never invested in these dogs”. Like yours truly. Happy fifth year to you bud and let’s see if that record holds for another thirty.
Seriously though, the GE and OMI situations can’t be any more different. The only commonality is the cut. The Dividend Guy mentions a couple of others as well – which I don’t own. I continue to be suspicious of the real strength of the overall economy as MAIN also announced a revision to their dividend policy (though not directly a cut). As an investor looking toward dividends, if this is the beginning of a trend it may be time to pare some of the speculation and migrate towards a more conservative posture.
Meanwhile, in these types of circumstances I feel compelled to share my reasoning and anticipated reactions.
Owens & Minor (OMI)
I have to concur with Dividend Guy’s observation earlier this year that this was “dead money”. I pretty much reached the same conclusion when I reduced my holdings by about 20% in 2015. I was content with the minimal dividend growth due to their stellar track record. The sea of change began in earnest in 2017 with fears of the Amazon effect. Then a couple of losses to competitors (one being CAH). Current pressure is hitting them on at least two fronts: the trend for hospitals to in-source and the ability to pass on increasing costs.
Being a patient investor I could accept all of the above and even a frozen dividend as they sort out the issues. But an unexpected cut of this magnitude leads me to believe there is another shoe to drop. Obviously I’m not alone in this concern on the earnings call, an analyst from Robert W. Baird & Co. asked the operative question, ” … And how comfortable are you with the covenants at this point on the debt position?” Last time I saw this question was when Orchids Paper (TIS), another former DGI darling, was in their free fall. I still like OMI’s logistics but they failed to capitalize on the head start they enjoyed prior to this advantage becoming a commodity.
OMI accounted for 3.46% of my 2017 dividends received and through 3Q 2018 had been reduced further to 1.89%. As this is an IRA holding I’m limited in the loss realization but intend to sell after ex-dividend and replace with a Canadian stock (with no tax withheld in IRAs). I suspect my Q1 2019 numbers will see minor impact in the Y/Y growth.
General Electric (GE)
On GE, Dividend Guy’s analysis matches mine, hands down, purely from a DGI perspective. GE, however (in my view) never regained their prior glory when the financial crisis exposed their warts. There is but one reason to have GE in a portfolio and it’s not the dividend, it’s corporate actions – which include things like spinoffs (which were the subject of one of my muses).
As this type of approach is speculative in nature, it pays to be mindful of the weightings. In my case, GE has ranged from 0.05% – 0.07% of total dividends for the past two years. My self-imposed maximum for speculation is 1% per issue. Therefore, I’m well within my targets.
So I consider this similarly to a currency trade where GE stock is the fiat. The wild card is the exchange rate when the spins are finalized. Best case is that GE is now fairly or under valued, in which case pending actions will be in my favor. Worst case I get a unfavorable cost basis that reduces (under current law) my tax basis. Therefore with minimal downside (unless GE goes belly-up) I intend to increase my GE holdings (once the price settles) to the nearest round lot and await the spins.
Therein lies my strategy for dealing with these events. I’ll attempt to follow the adage: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
