Stock dividends are being cut as companies emphasize preserving cash

Intel, the world’s largest maker of laptop processors, this week slashed its dividend fee to the bottom degree in 16 years in an effort to protect money and assist flip round its enterprise. Hanesbrands Inc., a century-old attire maker, earlier this month eradicated the quarterly dividend it began paying almost a decade in the past. VF Corp., which owns Vans, The North Face and different manufacturers, additionally reduce its dividend in current weeks as it really works to cut back its debt burden. 

“The board and I didn’t take this determination evenly,” Intel Chief Govt Officer Pat Gelsinger stated Wednesday. 

Extra corporations might comply with within the face of slowing earnings and subsequently greater leverage. Executives have been pressured to fastidiously handle each prices and debt to keep up free money movement as contemporary capital is costlier underneath the Federal Reserve’s new charges regime.

Retailers specifically face declining income, as persistent inflation additionally erodes shoppers’ willingness to spend.

Up to now this yr, as many as 17 corporations within the Dow Jones US Whole Inventory Market Index reduce their dividends, in keeping with knowledge compiled by Bloomberg. Nonetheless, it isn’t a choice that executives make simply, as it could possibly scare off buyers and dent corporations’ share costs. 

Intel pointed to a current assertion and its earnings launch and declined to remark additional. VF and Hanesbrands declined to remark. 

Shedding an Edge

Intel, as soon as the business chief in chips, is fighting a stoop in private laptop gross sales that generate the majority of its revenues. Rankings corporations Moody’s Traders Service, S&P World Rankings and Fitch Rankings have all downgraded Intel’s debt. 

Slowing IT spending and continued market share losses will seemingly put strain on the corporate’s profitability and credit score metrics, analysts at Moody’s stated. Along with the dividend reduce, Intel is eliminating jobs, slashing administration pay and slowing spending on new crops to save lots of as a lot as $10 billion by the tip of 2025. 

Nonetheless, Intel holds money of greater than $28 billion, Chief Monetary Officer David Zinsner stated this week. Whole debt stands at round $50 billion after the corporate offered $11 billion in bonds earlier this month. 

Simpler to Borrow

At Hanesbrands, gross sales fell 16% to $1.47 billion within the fourth quarter as a result of slower shopper spending and decrease orders from retailers, the corporate stated. That, mixed with greater financing prices and an upcoming maturity of over a $1 billion in 2024, left the corporate with restricted choices amid adverse free money movement of $471 million for 2022, in contrast with $554 million within the yr earlier. 

Chopping the dividend and different financial savings measures will generate roughly $500 million in complete working money movement in 2023, in keeping with the corporate. 

Hanesbrands this month refinanced debt that will have come due subsequent yr with high-yield bond and leveraged mortgage choices. For each offers, pricing tightened in Hanesbrands’ favor, indicating sturdy demand from buyers. 

Nixing the dividend earlier this month seemingly resulted in decrease borrowing prices for Hanesbrands, stated John McClain, portfolio supervisor at Brandywine World Funding Administration, which owns bonds and loans tied to the corporate. “This was the precise message to ship to {the marketplace} as a potential borrower in want of an inexpensive quantity of capital,” he stated. 

The refinancing deal loosened covenants associated to leverage whereas capping dividend payouts and proscribing buybacks, in keeping with Amanda O’Neill, a credit score analyst at S&P. “They’re fairly constrained from a capital allocation standpoint underneath this modification to loosen their covenants,” O’Neill stated. The rankings agency not too long ago downgraded the corporate one notch to BB- with a adverse outlook.

Hanesbrands final month stated Chief Monetary Officer Michael Dastugue would resign for household causes. Scott Lewis, its chief accounting officer and controller, will function interim CFO whereas Hanesbrands is trying to find a everlasting substitute.

Shock Expense

At VF, the dividend reduce is a part of an effort to keep up its investment-grade ranking, in keeping with S&P. The corporate’s earnings have suffered as a result of decrease gross sales for Vans and Covid-19 lockdowns in China.

VF is focusing on a leverage ratio of two.5 occasions gross debt to adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, tax, depreciation and amortization, the corporate stated throughout its most up-to-date earnings name. That compares to about 4.5 occasions this month, in keeping with the corporate.

Its debt originated partly from “aggressive” acquisitions of manufacturers large and small, together with a $2.1 billion deal for streetwear model Supreme in 2020, stated Mike Campellone, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. 

Then, the corporate was pressured to tackle one other $1 billion in debt to fund a tax settlement associated to its acquisition of Timberland in 2011. That bloated its leverage, which is above the vary it should preserve at its present ranking degree and its personal publicly acknowledged goal of two.5, in keeping with S&P. 

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