“We’ve really made the money out of high quality businesses . . . if the business earns 6% on capital over 40 years and you hold it for that 40 years, you’re not going to make much different than a 6% return even if you originally buy it at a huge discount. Conversely, if a business earns 18% on capital over 20 or 30 years, even if you pay an expensive looking price, you’ll end up with a fine result.” – Charlie Munger at USC Business School in 1994.
Growth Factor: We believe companies that can grow their earnings have the greatest potential to raise their dividends, which is why long-term earnings growth expectations make up 50% of our selection criteria. We believe earnings growth is a necessary consideration for future dividend increases.
Why Weight by Dividends?
Weighting by dividends, in effect, is how the Index methodology rests on the foundation of relative value . The index gives greater weight to companies growing their dividends. Simply, at each annual rebalance in June, the following adjustments occur:
• Typical Additions in Weight: Firms whose share prices may have performed poorly or stayed flat but whose dividends increased.
• Typical Reductions in Weight: Firms whose share prices may have performed quite well but whose dividend growth was negative or flat.
In future blog pieces, we will explore some of the characteristics of this new Index. In short, we believe the new Europe Dividend Growth index is a useful addition to the Indexes that represent the European growth opportunity. In particular, this Index focuses on companies WisdomTree believes have prospects for sustainable long-term growth in their dividends.
1Refers to the 5/31/2013 WisdomTree Global Dividend Index screening date, the most recent available.
2Refers to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
3The screening date for initial constituents for this Index. The Index screens annually on May 31.
Important Risks Related to this Article
Foreign investing involves special risks, such as risk of loss from currency fluctuation or political or economic uncertainty. Investments focused in Europe are increasing the impact of events and developments associated with the region, which can adversely affect performance. Dividends are not guaranteed, and a company’s future ability to pay dividends may be limited. A company currently paying dividends may cease paying dividends at any time.