Is the best measure of past performance on the S&P 500 Index earnings or dividends per share? It can make a big difference
Our recent report on S&P 500 earnings per share indicated that, adjusted for very low interest rates, the S&P 500 Index at June month end could not be regarded as optimistically valued, even though earnings had been falling and the ratio of the Index level to trailing earnings was well above average. Since then, the Index has marched on to record levels (helped by still lower long-term interest rates) to support this proposition of a market that was not very optimistic about forward earnings.
The case for regarding the key US equity market as risk averse rather than risk tolerant would be enhanced, should S&P 500 dividends rather than S&P 500 earnings be regarded as a superior measure of how companies have performed for their shareholders in recent years. As we show below, S&P 500 dividends per share have continued to increase even as earnings per share have declined, while the growth in dividends declared has remained strongly positive even as the growth rate has declined (figures 1 and 2 below).
Clearly the average listed US large cap company has been paying out relatively more of the cash it has generated (and borrowed) in dividends – rather than adding to its plant and equipment. The pay-out ratio (that of earnings to dividends) has declined from the over three level in 2011 to less than two times earnings recently (see figure 3). This, presumably, is more of a problem for the economy than for shareholders, especially when interest income has come under such pressure.
When we run a regression model to explain the level of the S&P 500 Index using dividends discounted by long term interest rates, the Index appears as distinctly undervalued for reported dividends on 30 June 2016. This is more undervalued (some 30% undervalued) than in a model using Index earnings as the measure of corporate performance – as demonstrated in our report of Monday 11 July (see figure 4 below).
On the basis of the dividend model, the market has been pricing in a high degree of risk aversion. Or, equivalently, it has been demanding a large equity risk premium to compensate for the perceived risks to earnings and dividend flows (the larger the equity risk premium, the lower must be share prices – other things held the same, that is trailing earnings or dividends and interest rates – to compensate investors for the perceived risks to the market).
The equity risk premium can be defined directly as the difference between the earnings or dividend yield on the Index and long-term interest rates. The larger these differences in yields, the larger the equity risk premium and the lower share prices will be. An undervalued market, as indicated by the negative residual of the dividend model as shown above, where the predicted (fitted) by the model value of the Index is far above the prevailing level of the market, indicates a large equity risk premium. In figure 5 below, we compare the residual of the earnings and dividend models with this equity risk premium. As may be seen, they describe the same facts: a large equity risk premium accompanied by an undervalued market and vice versa.
These equity risk premiums or under-/overvalued markets – relative to past performance, adjusted with prevailing interest rates – may prove justified or unjustified by subsequent performance, reflected by future earnings and dividends declared. Disappointing or surprisingly good earnings and dividends may flow from listed companies. It would appear that despite the record level of the S&P 500 and record levels of dividends, shareholders are currently very cautious rather than optimistic about earnings and dividend prospects.
Their expectations of dividends and earnings to come have become somewhat easier to meet. There is perhaps more safety in the market at current levels than is generally recognised.