Dividend Payments are Highly Concentrated in the UK Stock Market

Posted by on

Dividend paid out by British firms are unevenly distributed with a few large players accounting for a large portion of the dividends paid out. Traditionally the British dividend landscape is dominated by firms in certain sectors such as mining, oil, utilities, tobacco, consumer staples and telecom.

In fact, according to a research report by Schroder’s the top 10  payers account for just under half of the total dividends of the UK market. This shows the scale of concentration in the British market.

Click to enlarge

biggest-dividend-distributors-in-UK-stock-market

Source: What are the prospects for dividends in the UK?, Schroder’s

The takeaway here is that income investors looking for British dividend stocks should focus on some of the large-cap dividend payers due to the high concentration of dividends paid. The British banking sector can be avoided at this time. But others like Astra Zeneca(AZN), Vodafone(VOD), etc. are excellent dividend stocks for the long-term investor.

Disclosure: No Positions

Two Top British Fund Managers Favor Tobacco Stocks

Posted by on

Tobacco stocks are some of the consistent long-term winners in terms of both income and total returns. In a recent speech, two of the star rated fund managers in the UK noted their preference for stocks in this industry. Star fund managers Terry Smith and Neil Woodward noted a few reasons that support their views.

From an article in the CityWire UK:

Terrific tobacco

While Smith and Woodford were agreed on banks, they also share a fondness for tobacco stocks.Imperial Brands (IMB), formerly known as Imperial Tobacco, is Woodford’s biggest holding, and he also owns British American Tobacco (BATS) andReynolds American (RAI.N), having long been a backer of the sector. Smith is also an investor in Imperial Brands, alongside Philip Morris (PM.N).

While sceptics of the sector point to the mounting regulatory pressure on smoking and the rise of e-cigarettes as threats, Smith said they would have the opposite effects.

Bans on advertising and marketing had only served to erect barriers to new entrants to the sector, boosting the profitability of the market leaders, while e-cigarettes could expand the industry by allowing existing smokers more opportunities to smoke,’ he said.

‘The tobacco industry has been good for a period of time, and has been turbocharged by government action against the industry,’ he said.

Source: Terry Smith: I’d take a recession over a ‘lost decade’, CityWire UK

At a pretty basic level, tobacco firms operate in a unique environment in that the main ingredient in the product comes from a source that is very cheap to grow and the product is addictive.

Five tobacco stocks trading on the US markets are listed below with their current dividend yields:

1.Company: Reynolds American Inc (RAI)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.42%
Sector: Tobacco
Country: USA

2.Company: British American Tobacco PLC (BTI)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.61%
Sector:Tobacco
Country: UK

3.Company: Imperial Brands PLC (IMBBY)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.66%
Sector:Tobacco
Country: UK

4.Company: Philip Morris International, Inc. (PM) 
Current Dividend Yield: 4.06%
Sector: Tobacco
Country: USA

5.Company: Altria Group Inc. (MO)
Current Dividend Yield:3.64%
Sector: Tobacco
Country: USA

Note: Dividend yields noted above are as of April 19, 2016. Data is known to be accurate from sources used.Please use your own due diligence before making any investment decisions.

Disclosure: No Positions

Chart: World War II Casualties as a Percentage of Each Country’s Population

Posted by on

World War I was supposed to the “War to End all Wars“. However many years later World War II followed. The death toll in WW II was enormous with millions of lives lost on the allies side and the enemies side. After WW II new smaller wars led to more deaths.

I came across a fascinating chart today that showed the death toll for each country in WWII. Unlike so many other charts on the web, this chart puts the toll in perspective since it measures the casualties as percentage of each country’s then total population. Based on this logic, the countries with  the largest death toll were Poland, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

Click to enlarge

Caption: Baumermann 3509 Tote im Zweiten Weltkrieg 2. Weltkrieg WK2 Bevölkerung Titel Datum: 24. August 2009 World War II Casualties Death toll as a percentage of each country's 1939 population*

Caption: Baumermann 3509 Tote im Zweiten Weltkrieg 2. Weltkrieg WK2 Bevölkerung Titel
Datum: 24. August 2009
World War II Casualties
Death toll as a percentage of each country’s 1939 population*

Source: The Road to World War II: How Appeasement Failed to Stop Hitler,  Der Spiegel

At 0.30%, the U.S. had the lowest death toll percentage as a percentage of total population at that time. This does not mean American sacrifices were small compared to other countries. In fact, 450,000 Americans lost their lives and the US was the main driving force among the western allies. In addition, millions of American soldiers were injured and suffered as well.  The sheer US military power and technological superiority helped European countries and the world put an end  to the senseless  war.

Updates(1/15/23):

1.World War 2 Deaths to a Country Population Percentage:

Click to enlarge

Source: Unknown

2.Fraction of a Country’s Population to deaths in WW2:

Source: Wikipedia

3.World War II Deaths by  Country:

Click to enlarge

4.World War II Deaths by Country in Pie Chart Format:

5.World War II Deaths by Country in Bar Chart:

Source: Wikimedia

6.Human Losses of World War Two by  Country:

Source: Wikipedia

7.World War II Military Deaths:

Source: StrangeMilitary.com

8.World War 2 Deaths by Country in Map:

Source: Pinterest

9.World War 2 Deaths by Percentage of Pre-war Population of each Country:

Source: Pinterest

10.World War 2 Deaths by Country in World Map:

Source: TargetMap

11. World War II Fatalities by Country:

Source: Historical Non-Fiction

12. World War 2 Deaths by Country and Percentage of Population:

Click to enlarge

Source: The Causes and Consequences of World War II, WSWS

An excerpt from the above article:

The human cost of World War II exceeded by far that of the First World War. Military deaths totaled twenty-two to twenty-five million, including the deaths of five million prisoners of war. Let us examine the death tolls suffered by a number of countries most directly involved in the maelstrom. Poland lost more than 16 percent of its population. The Soviet Union lost approximately  14 percent. Eleven percent of the population of Greece was killed. Other countries that lost at least 10 percent of their populations were Lithuania and Latvia. Other countries that lost at least 3 percent of their people were Estonia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Singapore and Yugoslavia.

13.World War II military deaths in Europe by theater and by year

Source: Wikipedia

14. Military Losses in American Wars:

Source: BattleFields.org

15.World War I vs. World War II –  Civilian and Military Deaths Comparison:

Source: Google Images

16.Civilian and Military Deaths in Allied Countries:

Source: Foot Steps of War

17.Estimated number of military and civilian fatalities due to the Second World War per country or region between 1939 and 1945:

Source: Statista

For the full chart click on the link above.

18. The Number of Deaths in the Second World War by Nation:

Source: Statistics and Data

An Update on the Commodity Supercycle

Posted by on

A few years ago I wrote a article on the Gold and Silver supercycles.In that post I noted how these two commodities go thru boom and bust cycles in varying periods all the ways from late 1800s.

Recently I came across an chart on the commodity supercycle. As most commodities have declined sharply in the past few years it is worth taking a look at this chart.

Click to enlarge

Commodity Supercycle

Source: The Global Investment Outlook, RBC Global Asset Management

The authors of this RBC report note that commodity prices shot up very high during the boom years and now they have declined heavily during the downturn. Just like during the boom times they have overshot on the downside.Oil prices have stabilized and recovered strongly in the past few weeks. But it remains to be seem if the recovery can hold. According to the authors most commodity prices may remain low for some time.