Historically, the best time to invest in Eaton Vance Corp (EV) is when its price is aligned with its earnings justified valuation as it is now. The market has traditionally applied a premium valuation to Eaton Vance where the entry dividend yield has usually been below 2%. However, at today’s valuation, new investors have the opportunity to invest with the yield close to 3%. Consequently, Eaton Vance appears to offer attractive capital appreciation and an above-average and potentially growing dividend.
This article looks at Eaton Vance Corp, a Dividend Champion, through the lens of the F.A.S.T. Graphs™ Fundamentals Analyzer Software Tool. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, the reader will be provided the “essential fundamentals at a glance” expressed vividly in pictures. In order to provide you the opportunity to research this company deeper and faster we are providing a link to a live, fully functioning earnings and price correlated set of graphs Found Here. (Tip: Run your mouse over the various lines and watch the graphs come to life).
A Dividend Champion is defined as a company that has increased its dividend every year for 25 or more straight years. Eaton Vance Corp is a dividend champion that has raised its dividend every year for 31 consecutive years. The complete Dividend Champions list is compiled courtesy of David Fish. (Open as an excel spreadsheet and look at the tabs on the bottom to find the Dividend Champions list).
About Eaton Vance Corp: from their website
“Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV) is one of the oldest investment management firms in the United States, with a history dating to 1924. Eaton Vance and its affiliates offer individuals and institutions a broad array of investment strategies and wealth management solutions. The Company’s long record of exemplary service, timely innovation and attractive returns through a variety of market conditions has made Eaton Vance the investment manager of choice for many of today’s most discerning investors.”
Eaton Vance Corp: A Dividend Champion with 31 Consecutive Years of Dividend Increases
Learning from the Past – Looking at Earnings Only
Since dividends are paid out of earnings, a clear perspective of a company’s historical earnings growth record is a vital component of a dividend investor’s prudent due diligence process. The following graph plots Eaton Vance Corp’s earnings per share since 1998. A quick glance to the right of the graph shows that Eaton Vance Corp has increased earnings at a compounded rate of 14.2% (see purple circle on graph) per annum.
Earnings Determine Market Price and Dividend Income: The following earnings and price correlated F.A.S.T. Graphs™ clearly illustrates the importance of earnings to both price movement and dividend income. The earnings growth rate line or True Worth ™ line (orange line with white triangles) is correlated with the historical stock price line. On graph after graph the lines will move in tandem. If the stock price strays away from the earnings line (over or under), inevitably it will come back to earnings.
Since dividends are paid out of earnings, and therefore represent additional return on top of what the market capitalizes earnings at, they are depicted by the light blue shaded area and stacked on top of the earnings line. Therefore, a quick visual of these two important components is simultaneously revealed:
1. The additional return that dividend paying stocks provide.
2. The percentage of earnings paid to shareholders as dividends (payout ratio).
The value in this article is through carefully analyzing the earnings and price correlated fundamentally based graphs. Notice that one glance tells you how well the company has performed on an operating basis historically and how the market valued that historical performance. Therefore, the reader is free to discover whether or not current valuations make sense based on historical norms coupled with fundamental values. Instead of opinion, this article is designed to produce facts that can be analyzed to the readers investing benefit.
Performance Table: Capital Appreciation and Dividend Income Eaton Vance Corp
The associated performance results, with the earnings and price correlated graph, validates the above discussion regarding the two components of total return: Capital appreciation and dividend income. Dividends are included in the total return calculation and are assumed paid, but not reinvested.
When presented separately like this, the additional rate of return a dividend paying stock produces for shareholders becomes undeniably evident. In addition to the 12.8% capital appreciation (Closing Annualized ROR), long-term shareholders of Eaton Vance Corp would have received an additional $103,522.92 in dividends that increased their total return from 12.8% to 14.1% per annum.
(Note: Since this is a Dividend Champion it has raised its dividend every year for at least 25 years, therefore, negative dividend growth rates shown, if any, will be attributed to special additional dividends paid in excess of the company’s regularly reported dividend rate)
The following graph plots the historically normal PE ratio (the dark blue line) correlated with 10-year Treasury note interest. Notice that the current price earnings ratio on this quality company is as low as it has been since 1998.
A further indication of valuation can be seen by examining a company’s current price to sales ratio relative to its historical price to sales ratio. The current price to sales ratio for Eaton Vance Corp is 2.45, which is historically normal.
Looking to the Future
Extensive research has provided a preponderance of conclusive evidence that future long-term returns, and the dividend and its growth rate are a function of two critical determinants:
1. The rate of change (growth rate) of the company’s earnings
2. The price or valuation you pay to buy those earnings
Therefore, forecasting future earnings growth, bought at sound valuations, is the key to safe, sound, and profitable performance.
Therefore, it logically follows that measuring performance without simultaneously measuring valuation is a job half done. At its current price, which is attractively aligned with its True Worth™ valuation, Eaton Vance Corp represents a potential opportunity to invest in a Dividend Champion at a reasonable price. The important factor is that Eaton Vance Corp has real assets and cash flow underpinning its stock price. This solid economic foundation offers shareholders the potential for both a strong margin of safety and an opportunity for an increasing dividend income stream and potentially attractive future returns.
The Estimated Earnings and Return Calculator Tool is a simple yet powerful resource that empowers the user to calculate and run various investing scenarios that generate precise rate of return potentialities. Thinking the investment through to its logical conclusion is an important component towards making sound and prudent commonsense investing decisions.
The consensus of 10 leading analysts reporting to Capital IQ forecast Eaton Vance Corp long-term earnings growth at 9%. Eaton Vance Corp is currently trading at a P/E of 14.1, which is inside the value corridor (defined by the five orange lines) of a maximum P/E of 18. If the earnings materialize as forecast, Eaton Vance Corp’s True Worth valuation would be $44.89 at the end of 2017, which would be a 12.6% annual rate of return from the current price, including assumed dividends.
Earnings Yield Estimates
Discounted Future Cash Flows: All companies derive their value from the future cash flows (earnings) they are capable of generating for their stakeholders over time. Therefore, because Earnings Determine Market Price and dividend income in the long run, we expect the future earnings of a company to justify the price we pay.
Since all investments potentially compete with all other investments, it is useful to compare investing in any prospective company to that of a comparable investment in low risk Treasury bonds. Comparing an investment in Eaton Vance Corp to an equal investment in 10-year Treasury bonds illustrates that Eaton Vance Corp’s expected earnings would be 5.8 times that of the 10-Year T-Bond Interest. (See EYE chart below). This is the essence of the importance of proper valuation as a critical investing component.
This report presents essential “fundamentals at a glance” on Dividend Champion Eaton Vance Corp, illustrating the past and present valuation based on earnings achievements as reported. Future forecasts for earnings growth are based on the consensus of leading analysts. Although with just a quick glance you can know a lot about the company, it’s imperative that the reader conduct his or her own due diligence in order to validate whether the consensus estimates seem reasonable or not. Follow the link we provided at the beginning of this article to a fully functioning F.A.S.T. Graphs™ on Eaton Vance Corp.
Summary & Conclusions
Eaton Vance is one of the most respected and established investment advisors in the country. Like many financials, the great recession took its toll on both earnings and market cap. Since that time, both earnings and price have recovered off of lows. However, over the past year price weakness appears to have created an attractive entry point for conservative income investors to consider an investment in this Dividend Champion. As always, we recommend you conduct your own due diligence.
