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Markets in a Minute

Dividend Stocks: Driving Value in Volatile Markets

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This Markets in a Minute Chart is available as a poster.

Dividend Stocks: Driving Value in Volatile Markets

This Markets in a Minute Chart is available as a poster.

Dividend Stocks: Driving Value in Volatile Markets

When markets take a turn for the worse, dividends often can provide a buffer against the drop.

Year after year, dividend-paying companies put money into shareholders’ pockets—and may offer much needed stability during periods of high volatility. Dividend investing can help offset unexpected downturns by generating a key source of income.

In today’s Markets in a Minute chart from New York Life Investments, we explore how dividends can help lower risk within investors portfolios when markets enter turbulent territory.

The Appeal of Dividends

Over the last two decades, dividend-paying companies have outperformed the S&P 500 in 12 of 20 years, including in all five years where the S&P 500 finished the year in negative territory.

Year S&P 500 Total Return (TR)Dividend-Paying Stocks* Total Return (TR)Top performer
2000-9.1%10.1%Dividends
2001-11.9%10.8%Dividends
2002-22.1%-9.9%Dividends
200328.7%25.4%S&P 500
200410.9%15.5%Dividends
20054.9%3.7%S&P 500
200615.8%17.3%Dividends
20075.5%-2.1%S&P 500
2008-37.0%-21.9%Dividends
200926.5%26.6%Dividends
201015.1%19.4%Dividends
20112.1%8.3%Dividends
201216.0%16.9%Dividends
201332.4%32.3%S&P 500
201413.7%15.8%Dividends
20151.4%0.9%S&P 500
201612.0%11.8%S&P 500
201721.8%21.7%S&P 500
2018-4.4%-2.7%Dividends
201931.5%28.0%S&P 500

*Dividend stocks represented by S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat Index. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

What sets dividend-paying companies—and especially those that continually grow their dividends—apart from the herd?

Wide Moats: A Competitive Advantage

While dividend growth signals company strength, it can also indicate that the company has an economic moat—a sustainable competitive advantage. This means two things: the company can raise prices, and keep competitors at bay. For shareholders, this signals a stronger likelihood of profitability, and more sustainable dividend payouts.

Reinvested Income Fuel Returns

Between 1926 and 2018, reinvested dividend income accounted for 33% of total equity returns in the S&P 500.

While capital appreciation is an undisputed factor in building wealth, it’s easy to forget the sheer force of dividends.

Strong Balance Sheet

A company’s ability to pay steady dividends is critical. Dividends are drawn from a company’s cash balance, which must be sufficient during both strong and lackluster financial conditions.

Ultimately, this cash allocation represents a conservative and disciplined approach to the company balance sheet—demonstrating a commitment to shareholders.

“At the end of the day, dividends are not being paid with margins; dividends are paid with earnings per share.”

—Joe Kaeser

Cushion Against a Shock

When markets turn sour, income from dividend payouts can offer a key lifeline.

The ability for dividend payers to generate superior risk-adjusted returns is demonstrated across their Sharpe ratios, with a higher number indicating a more attractive risk/return profile.

For instance, between 1990-2018, The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat Index—a basket of stocks that have paid consistent, increasing, dividends over 25 years— averaged a Sharpe ratio of 0.7 compared to the S&P 500’s 0.4.

Alongside this, a number of dividend payers have outperformed the S&P 500 in every down year since 2000.

YearS&P 500 Total Return (TR)Dividend-Paying Stocks* Total Return (TR)
2000-9.1%10.1%
2001-11.9%10.8%
2002-22.1%-9.9%
2008-37%-21.9%
2018-4.4%-2.7%
Total Years Dividend-Paying Stocks (TR) Outperformed5

*Dividend stocks represented by S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat Index. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Even during dismal years, dividend payers have shown notable returns.

A Powerful Tool in Today’s Market

As COVID-19 continues to drive further volatility in the market, dividend investing may offer investors both stability and strong income to help weather the storm.

Of course, not all dividend-payers can be expected to be winners. Careful analysis of financial statements and management track records is required to identify companies with the strongest fundamentals.

While dividend payers can help provide a shield in volatile markets, they double as a significant driver of wealth creation over time.

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Markets in a Minute

What is the Success Rate of Actively Managed Funds?

For actively managed funds, the odds of beating the market over the long run are like finding a needle in a haystack.

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Actively Managed Funds

What is the Success Rate of Actively Managed Funds?

Over a 20-year period, 95% of large-cap actively managed funds have underperformed their benchmark.

The above graphic shows the performance of actively managed funds across a range of fund types, using data from S&P Global via Charlie Bilello.

Missing the Mark: Actively Managed Funds

Several factors present headwinds to actively managed funds.

  • Trading costs: First, fund managers will trade more often than passive funds. These in turn incur costs, impacting returns.
  • Cash holdings: Additionally, many of these funds hold a cash allocation of about 5% or more to capture market opportunities. Unlike active funds, their passive counterparts are often fully invested. Cash holdings can have the opposite effect than intended—dragging on overall returns.
  • Fees: Active funds can charge up to 1-2% in investment manager fees while funds that tracked an index passively charged just 0.12% on average in 2022. These additional costs add up over time.

Below, we show how active funds increasingly underperform against their benchmark over each time period.

Fund Type1 Year
% Underperformed
5 Year
% Underperformed
10 Year
% Underperformed
20 Year
% Underperformed
All Large-Cap 51879195
All Small-Cap 57718994
Large-Cap Growth 74869698
Large-Cap Value 59698587
Small-Cap Growth 80598597
Small-Cap Value 41819192
Real Estate 88627487

As we can see, 51% of all large-cap active mutual funds underperformed in a one-year period. That compares to 41% of small-cap value funds, which had the best chance of outperforming the benchmark annually. Also, an eye-opening 88% of real estate funds underperformed.

For context, Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway has beat the S&P 500 two-thirds of the time. Even the world’s top stock pickers have a hard time beating the market’s returns.

2020 Market Crash: A Case Study

How about active funds’ performance during a crisis?

While the case for actively managed funds is often stronger during a market downturn, a 2020 study shows how they continued to underperform the index.

Overall, 74% of over 3,600 active funds with $4.9 trillion in assets did worse than the S&P 500 during the 2020 market plunge.

Stage of 2020 CycleTime Period% Underperforming S&P 500
CrisisFeb 20 - Apr 30, 202074.2
CrashFeb 20 - Mar 23, 202063.5
RecoveryMar 24 - Apr 30, 202055.8
Pre-CrisisOct 1 2019 - Jan 31, 202067.1

Source: NBER

In better news, roughly half underperformed through the recovery, the best out of any market condition that was studied.

The Bigger Impact

Of course, some actively managed funds outperform.

Still, choosing the top funds year after year can be challenging. Also note that active fund managers typically only run a portfolio for four and a half years on average before someone new takes over, making it difficult to stick with a star manager for very long.

As lower returns accumulate over time, the impact of investing in active mutual funds can be striking. If an investor had a $100,000 portfolio and paid 2% in costs every year for 25 years, they would lose about $170,000 to fees if it earned 6% annually.

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Markets in a Minute

Ranked: The Largest Bond Markets in the World

The global bond market stands at $133 trillion in value. Here are the major players in bond markets worldwide.

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The Largest Bond Markets in the World

The Largest Bond Markets in the World

In 2022, the global bond market totaled $133 trillion.

As one of the world’s largest capital markets, debt securities have grown sevenfold over the last 40 years. Fueling this growth are government and corporate debt sales across major economies and emerging markets. Over the last three years, China’s bond market has grown 13% annually.

Based on estimates from the Bank for International Statements, this graphic shows the largest bond markets in the world.

ℹ️ Total debt numbers here include both domestic and international debt securities in each particular country or region. BIS notes that international debt securities are issued outside the local market of the country where the borrower resides and cover eurobonds as well as foreign bonds, but exclude negotiable loans.

Ranked: The World’s Top Bond Markets

Valued at over $51 trillion, the U.S. has the largest bond market globally.

Government bonds made up the majority of its debt market, with over $26 trillion in securities outstanding. In 2022, the Federal government paid $534 billion in interest on this debt.

China is second, at 16% of the global total. Local commercial banks hold the greatest share of its outstanding bonds, while foreign ownership remains fairly low. Foreign interest in China’s bonds slowed in 2022 amid geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and lower yields.

Bond Market RankCountry / RegionTotal Debt OutstandingShare of Total Bond Market
1🇺🇸 U.S.$51.3T39%
2🇨🇳 China$20.9T16%
3🇯🇵 Japan$11.0T8%
4🇫🇷 France$4.4T3%
5🇬🇧 United Kingdom$4.3T3%
6🇨🇦 Canada$4.0T3%
7🇩🇪 Germany$3.7T3%
8🇮🇹 Italy$2.9T2%
9🇰🇾 Cayman Islands*$2.7T2%
10🇧🇷 Brazil*$2.4T2%
11🇰🇷 South Korea*$2.2T2%
12🇦🇺 Australia$2.2T2%
13🇳🇱 Netherlands$1.9T1%
14🇪🇸 Spain$1.9T1%
15🇮🇳 India*$1.3T1%
16🇮🇪 Ireland$1.0T1%
17🇲🇽 Mexico*$1.0T1%
18🇱🇺 Luxembourg$0.9T1%
19🇧🇪 Belgium$0.7T>1%
20🇷🇺 Russia*$0.7T>1%

*Represent countries where total debt securities were not reported by national authorities. These figures are the sum of domestic debt securities reported by national authorities and/or international debt securities compiled by BIS.
Data as of Q3 2022.

As the above table shows, Japan has the third biggest debt market. Japan’s central bank owns a massive share of its government bonds. Central bank ownership hit a record 50% as it tweaked its yield curve control policy that was introduced in 2016. The policy was designed to help boost inflation and prevent interest rates from falling. As inflation began to rise in 2022 and bond investors began selling, it had to increase its yield to spur demand and liquidity. The adjustment sent shockwaves through financial markets.

In Europe, France is home to the largest bond market at $4.4 trillion in total debt, surpassing the United Kingdom by roughly $150 billion.

Banks: A Major Buyer in Bond Markets

Like central banks around the world, commercial banks are key players in bond markets.

In fact, commercial banks are among the top three buyers of U.S. government debt. This is because commercial banks will reinvest client deposits into interest-bearing securities. These often include U.S. Treasuries, which are highly liquid and one of the safest assets globally.

As we can see in the chart below, the banking sector often surpasses an economy’s total GDP.

Banking Sector

As interest rates have risen sharply since 2022, the price of bonds has been pushed down, given their inverse relationship. This has raised questions about what type of bonds banks hold.

In the U.S., commercial banks hold $4.2 trillion in Treasury bonds and other government securities. For large U.S. banks, these holdings account for almost 24% of assets on average. They make up an average 15% of assets for small banks in 2023. Since mid-2022, small banks have reduced their bond holdings due to interest rate increases.

As higher rates reverberate across the banking system and wider economy, it may expose further strains on global bond markets which have expanded rapidly in an era of dovish monetary policy and ultra-low interest rates.

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