Equity Income Update: Unsustainable Yields

We know that earnings downgrades (and subsequent share price declines) do help when predicting dividend cuts. In price performance terms, the clear winners during 2014 were the Heath Care and Technology sectors but both pay very little in terms of dividend yield and the losers were the Oil & Gas and Mining sectors. For 2015, currency weakness (or strength in the case of the US Dollar) is likely to be a major factor to earnings. But sales growth in the US is currently forecast to be flat and earnings growth, which has been dramatically revised down, now stands at just 3%. With earnings momentum so weak and valuations so high, corporates may decide to keep a lid on dividend growth.