In one of the recent brand valuing exercise, GE’s brand value in dollar terms came out at number four. GE’s current number four position remains unchanged since 2001. One would tend to assume and to a certain extent question the fact that how can it remain same with what happened with GE in 2008 and early 2009. There were many factors such as CEO missing the bus on earnings, coming out with everything OK statement, cutting dividends, capital infusion from Buffett, etc. So we as individuals would tend to think that GE brand value should have gone down.
I think the key aspect that we miss here is the GE’s positioning in global economics. When we look at GE we look at window of US economies and US stock markets. We come to a conclusion that GE is toast and does not deserve its top ranking. We tend to forget that GE earns up to 60% of its revenue from markets outside North America. GE’s products, reach, high end markets, and presence in emerging markets, is what makes its brand valuable.
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In last few weeks, I have looked at dividend stocks (aristocrats and achievers) that have dividend yields of less than 2%. There is a school of thought among dividend crowd that low dividend yields will take more than 10, 12, or even 15 years to match income from high yielding CDs or money market accounts. Furthermore, when low yield dividend stocks are compared to high yield dividend stocks, considering conservative dividend growth rates, low yielding stocks will often lag by significant amount. I agree that, mathematically, there is no argument for low yielding dividend stock providing lower income. Purely based on numbers, it is always good to go for relatively higher yield dividends stocks. In general, the cut off used by dividends investors vary such as 2% absolute dividend yield, 3% absolute dividend yield, or dividend yield higher than market (i.e. S&P500 yield).
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