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Can anyone see the rise above 408 today
Alex2570, I did move on and bought MNG and LGEN. Trading both has done me very nicely thanks. I am back in Av. but beginning to wonder why. Oh, I remember, it was for the dividend.. Fingers crossed.
How are you people still moaning about this, honestly you can't change it, some of you have been obsessed for a whole year, we didn't get the div, accept it and move on
Bubbles etc.
I think it is necessary to set the record straight. God knows we live in a world of disinformation where rumour and untruths fester into facts in no time.
You say the government didn't instruct financials to cease paying dividends. No, they didn't but the FCA did tell some financials to cease dividends;
Banks were told they could not pay dividends. Insurers were not but were advised by the FCA that they should be very "prudent". Why? There was a feeling in the city that this could be a financial Armageddon. I haven't seen fear like that since the financial crash.
So all banks stopped paying dividends and insurers were told to protect their balance sheets at all costs (so that they didn't need a bail out). Aviva and Direct Line stopped their declared dividends - an unprecedented move but I think reflected the gravity of the situation in March 2020. DL has since caught up with the missed payments. Aviva hasn't. LGEN kept its dividend throughout arguing that it's balance sheet was strong enough. They were right! Others, like Chesnara actually increased their dividends.
Aviva was super cautious in my view. Possibly because it was not in such a strong position as DL/LGEN etc (for different reasons). Aviva also changed CEO around the time and it is no surprise an incoming CEO uses the opportunity to rebase the dividend because it allows them to claim later that they continually increased it!
But remember this, although the dividend was not paid (which has caused pain) the money is still inside Aviva. The value is still there and it probably allows for a more generous policy down the line. That will suit some more than others.
Guitarsolo
"Haven't we been here before?"
Yes we have, but just because the predecessors failed before doe's not mean that the new team will fail also, does it. The new team have gone in a different direction by selling of the none core, less productive components, and now have to come up with a new business model to get the company firing on all cylinders again. They still have their work cut out though because as I have said before, it's easy to get a bad reputation but very hard to shrug it of. But let's at least give them a chance to prove themselves.
"There is a new captain at the helm now so lets judge Aviva on their performance going forwards from here now that they have completed the pruning and start to restructure their corporate strategy"
Haven't we been here before?
It is hard for me to say it, but Aviva should not be singled out and judged as the bad apple in the barrel for cancelling dividends during the pandemic. All the major banks did this, as did Direct Line. I think Legal and General were the only large financial institution that honoured their declared dividend. Some of the other major dividend payers, although paying, rebased their dividends to a far lower level. There is a new captain at the helm now so lets judge Aviva on their performance going forwards from here now that they have completed the pruning and start to restructure their corporate strategy .
Thanks for the information. Dividend at 5.2% is still good. I am a short term speculator. 20%-25% gain and I'll be out of here.
For reliable dividend I prefer one of those dividend heroes such as City of London or Merchants trust.
The government didn't instruct financials to cease paying dividends. As far as I'm aware, they were advised to exercise prudence. Despite informing shareholders that the 'declared dividend' was well covered and that business was robust despite covid etc etc, they unfairly reneged on honouring the dividend which had already been declared. This of course was done whilst many other financials as you put it ,did the right thing and paid their dividends. Aviva's poor investor relations took yet another hit just when you thought they may have learnt their lesson following the preference share fiasco. There's definitely one or two heads that need bashing together at Board level I would suggest in order to try and build up some trust again. Investors are likely to have been put off by those
shenanigans so consequently holding back the SP IMO.
The information on the Aviva website is a tad misleading; the 6p dividend was miserly compensation for the final 2019 dividend due to be paid in May 2020 which was stolen from investors by the BOD when Government instructed financials not to pay dividends during COVID Pandemic. The total dividend for 2020 was 7p interim and 14p final , total dividend for year 21p. 21p should be used for calculating dividend yield for 2020, which at an average price paid of 401p is 5.2%. Going forward there will only be 2 dividends per year (not including any specials which may be given out when they decide how to pass excess cash back to share holders). Although that could possibly change as there was a rumour touted a while ago they may be considering paying a quarterly dividend, but that is only a rumour.
I looked at AV. website https://www.aviva.com/investors/dividends/#anchor-current-historical-dividend-table which stated dividend for the last 12 months as 6p + 7p + 14p = 27p.
Where did you get the information of dividend yield 6.7%, from this website? If as you say your average price is 401p then the current yield at that price is 5.2%.
Tacly. Your in good company here. Long or short term we are all hoping for a good return. You have listed a number of reasons why our faith could be well founded. Best wishes.
I started buying AV in the last 2 week averaging 401p. I am attracted by the high dividend yield of 6.7%, the low P/E ratio, the cash from the recent disposals and the strategies of the new CEO. Hopefully this share will hit 500p by the end of this year.