Become a Member

Can you Really “Collect a 35% Dividend in October 2016?”

Checking out the teaser pitch from Ian Wyatt's Dividend Confidential

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, September 21, 2016

Ian Wyatt has been a fan of “special dividends” for some time, and has hinted at the huge potential payouts for his various investment newsletters over the years… this ad from him is in much the same vein, though he’s now selling a newsletter that is specifically focused on just these “special dividends.”

And, as the headline implies, he’s using the notion that there’s a 35% dividend just waiting for you if you subscribe — to be paid out in a matter of weeks. Who wouldn’t want that, right?

Well, “who wouldn’t want that” other than people who invest in taxable accounts, that is. People who have to pay taxes on their dividends aren’t always as delighted to get a big special dividend payout. More on that in a minute.

So what is it that Wyatt is really hinting at here? Let’s grab a taste of the ad for you:

“In the next few days, you have a chance to collect a historic 35% dividend from an American software firm.

“It’s just the beginning of what promises to be a record year for large, one-day payouts

“This 35% dividend yield will be payable to shareholders of record by October 3rd.

“At 35%, this dividend could hand you $350 for every $1,000 invested.

“That means a $700 dividend (in one day) from a $2,000 investment.”

They’re selling this idea in a special report called “Our Largest Special Dividend Yet,” though what’s really on offer is the subscription that you have to buy to get that “special report”… the new service, Dividend Confidential is edited by a guy named Steve Mauzy — I haven’t heard of him before — and it’s being launched with a “special” charter price of $795/year.

The general idea is that they’re going to recommend trades around these “special dividends” — either suggesting that you buy the stock in order to get the dividend, or that you buy it immediately after the dividend payment, when the stock falls, because of the tendency for those prices to recover over time (or both, I guess). Here’s how they put it:

“Depending on your tax situation, collecting a one-day payout might be advantageous – or it might not be.

“We’ve discovered that in some circumstances it can be even more lucrative to buy the stock on the ex-dividend date and to take your profits as pure capital gains….

“Here’s how it works:

“As soon as we vet a new payout, we send you an alert. At this point, you have two choices:

“You can look for yourself and see if the payout is something you’re interested in, buy the shares and collect the dividend…

“OR

“You can wait until after the ex-dividend date and take advantage of huge capital gains as the stock soars following the ex-dividend date.”

So that’s the strategy — what, then, is this “Largest Special Dividend Yet” that they’re pitching as they attempt to corral “charter subscribers?”

Well, we’ve already seen all the clues that are on offer — 35% dividend, payable to shareholders of record by October 3, American software firm.

So who is it?

This is almost certainly a fairly quiet US tech company called SynTel (SYNT), which operates as a technology services company to many major industry sectors, including healthcare and financial services. Syntel announced recently that they will be repatriating a little more than a billion dollars in cash from their foreign subsidiaries, spending about $240 million in taxes to do that (funded mostly by debt), and distributing the cash to shareholders in the form of a one-time $15 per share dividend (which is roughly 35% of the current $43 share price).

Are you getting our free Daily Update
"reveal" emails? If not,
just click here...


I don’t know this company, from what I can tell they have a lot of near-peers in IT outsourcing and services, but this is how they describe themselves:

“Syntel is a well-managed organization that has gained a reputation as a straight-talking, no hype firm that delivers consistent financial performance. With considerable cash reserves and revenues of $968.6 million in 2015, we have the financial stability to reinvest and grow with our customers. The stock trades on NASDAQ under the symbol SYNT.

“We are a global leader in digital modernization services, with a core suite of automation-driven IT and knowledge process services. Syntel helps global enterprises thrive in the Two-Speed World™ by building agile, efficient technology infrastructures that blend legacy business models with disruptive digital innovations.

“Syntel was the first US-based firm to launch a Global Delivery Service to drive speed-to-market and quality advantages for its customers. Syntel’s 23,500+ employees operate from centers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.”

They’ve been around for 30+ years, they’re big enough to be considered a “mid cap” stock by many folks (market cap a bit over $3 billion), and this special dividend essentially amounts to them paying out all of their historical retained earnings to shareholders… at which point the company will no longer be “cash rich” (it will have hardly any cash at all, and will have some debt). That may not be a problem, since it’s not a particularly capital-intensive business (their assets are people, not big projects or buildings or factories), and it might even help the stock to get a better net valuation in the end.

It will hurt reported performance in the short term, however — the earnings for next quarter are going to be lousy because of the hit they’ll take on taxes as they “repatriate” that cash and distribute it. That doesn’t mean their long-term business will necessarily be hurt, that will depend on how the actual business operates — analysts seem to think, on average, that the stock is pretty fairly valued and not expected to grow much.

Analysts forecast that earnings will be down a little this year, roughly flat next year, and up a few percent in 2018 (not including the one-time hit from the special dividend), so that means the stock is currently trading at about 16 times next year’s earnings.

On the morning after the special dividend ex-dividend date passes, the shares will drop $15, so if they’re still at $43 then that would mean a fall to roughly $28… and at that point, with the earnings for next year not likely to be changed by more than a few cents (they won’t be collecting interest income on that cash, but that income was small and losing the cash doesn’t otherwise impact the business much), the forward PE will drop markedly.

PE ratios don’t account for excess cash (unless you do the adjustment yourself — like some folks have done for Apple over the years, for example), which is one of the main reasons companies consider special dividends: If they’re not getting credit for holding that cash, why not give it away?

So the earnings for 2017 will still probably be expected to be in the neighborhood of $2.60 per share. That means the forward PE, following the dividend, will be about 11 (assuming the share price will be about $28 following the dividend, $28/2.60 is 10.8).

Which means, if you do like the company, that it is now cheaper if you use the same metric that most investors do, that PE ratio. You could either buy it today at $43, get $15 returned to you in a couple weeks, and have a net cost of $28 (plus whatever taxes you owe on the special dividend, I don’t know what the tax treatment of it will be — sometimes these are all income, sometimes they’re partly “return of capital”), which would mean you own an IT consulting/outsourcing firm with a forward PE of about 11… or you could wait until the day the stock begins trading ex-dividend, buy it at the open for roughly $15 less than it closed at the day before, and also own that same share of that same company with a forward PE of 11 (and without whatever tax hit, if any, comes from the special dividend payment).

Now, whether that company deserves to have a PE of 11 or not is another matter. The forward PE has fluctuated between about 15 and 19 over the past year or so, and the trailing PE has ranged from 11 to 19 over the past five years. So you can make an argument that the shares should trade higher because that PE of 11 will be too low, and the market will gradually realize that and bid the stock back up following the drop caused by the special dividend… but even though the over-cashed balance sheet in the past may not have been a huge benefit for Syntel, you can’t be certain that investors will value the same company the same way when you take away that balance sheet strength.

And, of course, the big thing for Syntel in the years to come will be growth — can they grow the business? Can they take share from competitors? Those things won’t change much, but analysts are currently pretty skeptical about growth prospects.

The special dividend itself is really not magical, of course, and it doesn’t generate any big returns for you unless the stock really does recover fairly well after the dividend is paid. I wouldn’t expect to actually earn 35% on this investment over the next year, not unless you think that the stock is going to recover to $43 a share in relatively short order… but that’s a pretty high hurdle, and if you like the company otherwise it might be worth your time to investigate further. Most analysts rank it as a “hold,” and, since I don’t know anything about them other than what I saw from skimming a decade’s worth of financials (mostly slow growth), I’d be inclined to agree.

A PE of 10 or 11 for a slow-growth or no-growth IT services company seems pretty reasonable, and I don’t have any particular reason to want a one-time “kickback” of $15 for buying shares so I’d probably look at them after the special dividend and hope that there were a lot of shareholders who sold because they were just holding on to get that dividend… if it gets cheaper than that because of some over-selling, maybe I’ll be tempted. It could also run up in price heading into that special dividend, since sometimes those things attract investors like moths to a flame, so there could be quite a bit of volatility around the dividend payment date.

Here are the details from the press release:

“The special cash dividend, is payable on October 3, 2016, to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 22, 2016. Due to the size of the dividend, it is anticipated that the Company’s common stock will begin trading ex-dividend (without the dividend), the first business day following the dividend payable date, or October 4, 2016.”

So no, it’s not free money, and it’s likely not really a 35% return, but if the financial engineering works as they hope it will it might improve Syntel’s valuation… assuming the company is otherwise reasonably attractive to shareholders. They do not have a regular dividend and do not routinely buy back stock, and this is an expensive and one-time move… so if it doesn’t work or investors have no other reason, beyond the big cash pile, to buy Syntel shares, well, it could toddle along at $28-30 for a while after the dividend just like it has toddled around at $40-45 for most of the past couple years.

At least some other folks agree that the special dividend is a good thing — there’s a bullish article here at Seeking Alpha if you’d like to see some of that argument.

And, of course, Steve Mauzy and the Wyatt folks are pretty convinced that the stock they pick will do well after they pay their special dividend, this is how they describe the phenomenon:

“Once a company pays out a large dividend, the stock can rally for months afterwards.

“But right around the day of the payout, the stock typically declines in price.

“This exact price action happens with regular dividends too.

“And It’s completely expected. When a company has less cash, the price goes down similarly.

“it’s a market reaction – but it creates a powerful opportunity.

“That’s because when most investors are in the dark. They have no idea that exchanges have these rules in place.

“So most investors panic. They sell at the worst possible time…

“And because they don’t understand these special dividend situations, it creates a powerful tailwind for the stock. It shakes out all the weak hands and creates an attractive buying price for new investors.”

And they share a couple examples:

“Take a look at what happened with Advent Software….

“In 2013, this company paid a $9 a share dividend… and the stock dropped 37% almost immediately.

“But within a month, Advent regained that 37%…and even more.

“And our research shows in many circumstances, companies that pay large special dividends also have huge capital gains too…

“What we’ve learned is that collecting these dividends can be one of the safest and most reliable ways to make money in the investing world.”

Advent doesn’t exist anymore, it was bought by another financial services software company last year, but they did indeed pay a special dividend backed by both debt and cash back in the Summer of 2013 — the stock was around $33 when they announced the dividend, it spiked up to about $36 right before the dividend, dropped the $9 for the dividend, and did actually recover most of that fairly quickly — it wasn’t quite a month, but the special dividend was in early July and the shares were again over $33 by Halloween.

So yes, that one worked out quite well for investors, in no small part because the company was taken over at $44 after another year or so, and it didn’t trade down below that “ex dividend” trough over the following year… though I don’t really know what the underlying business was like at the time.

And they give other examples:

“As part of our work to find unique income opportunities, one of our researchers pointed out a large dividend he had just collected. It was a 52% one-day payout from Source Capital…

“It amounted to $32 a share! For every 100 shares he owned, he pocketed $3,200…

“‘Like hitting the lotto’ is how he put it.

“We thought – 52% sounds great. But what happens to the stock after such a big payout?

“As it turns out, after the first 45 days following this payout, the company’s stock was up another $2.”

That’s not really a “stock,” per se, that’s a closed-end fund managed by FPA — they did a huge special dividend in February because their longtime portfolio manager was retiring and they were more or less “resetting” the fund. That’s not going to have any real value for assessing whether a corporate special dividend is likely to add value, but it didn’t hurt the fund — the driving force is the net asset value of the fund, which will go up if they invest well and down if they don’t, and the fund trades at about a 10% discount to net asset value today, just like it did before the special dividend… and it still has a decent “bench” of portfolio managers at FPA, though it might be that you’d consider it less valuable now than it was when it was being run by the guy who had generate a 1,000% total return over the previous two decades.

So… does that make you want to seek out special dividends? Tempt you to think about buying Syntel shares before or after the dividend? Have any other dividend-focused strategies you favor? Let us know with a comment below… thanks!

P.S. And in case you hadn’t been thinking about this, yes — this is a fairly aggressive maneuver. Apple (AAPL) has effectively taken advantage of some of its huge cash hoard to buy back stocks and pay a dividend (though not a special dividend), but they’ve done that by borrowing the money… not by bringing it in from overseas subsidiaries and paying taxes on the money. Many companies are holding out for some kind of “repatriation holiday” that would let them bring back their cash to the US without paying the full corporate tax rate on their profits… if that happens, and the probability of that is yours to guess at, then Syntel management might feel kinda dumb for doing this now and perhaps paying more in taxes than they had to. We’ll see.

Disclosure: I do own shares of Apple, mentioned above. I am not invested in any of the other companies mentioned above, and will not trade in any covered stock for at least three days per Stock Gumshoe’s trading rules.

Irregulars Quick Take

Paid members get a quick summary of the stocks teased and our thoughts here. Join as a Stock Gumshoe Irregular today (already a member? Log in)
guest

12345

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

24 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
John E
Member
John E
September 21, 2016 3:57 pm

I think the point about stocks falling excessively after paying large dividends is a valid one – I’ve seen it happen in my portfolio. It generates negative momentum and makes the charts look alarming. There are enough folk that don’t know what is happening to generate an overshoot on the downside and provide an opportunity to participate in a recovery.
This is how I would play it rather than investing $1000 now to get $350 back in a few weeks.

Add a Topic
152
daturbide
daturbide
September 21, 2016 4:04 pm

What happens to option (puts) when a stock drops after a distribution like this? Are they re-valued somehow or can the option trader make a profit on the drop?

Add a Topic
5971
Jay
Guest
Jay
September 6, 2017 1:14 pm
Reply to  daturbide

They become re-valued. I learned the hard way

Garry
Garry
September 21, 2016 4:04 pm

I assume that if you buy a say $30 put for October 21st that it will be adjusted before or on the day of payment??

👍 21650
kblyons46
kblyons46
September 21, 2016 5:35 pm

I always laugh when folks speak of ANY dividend as yield or income. Because it isn’t. The price of the stock always drops to mirror the cash the company just gave away. This is often masked by the daily noise in the price but it is pretty much always true. The difference with a big special dividend is tha t price noise can’t mask the drop. And yes getting dividend imparts a tax liability so it is actually a negative.

Add a Topic
996
Add a Topic
5971
👍 100
jeefu
jeefu
September 21, 2016 7:22 pm

Looking at the charts, Synt has been between $40-50 for the past 3 years, and hasn’t been down to $28-30 since 2013, so on the thesis expressed by many that an anticipated $15 special dividend has driven it up to 43 and the price will drop back to $28 ex dividend, that would mean all those shareholders have been anticipating this dividend and awaiting it for 3 long years? Does that make sense? Or does it mean that by shedding the cash, the company will be intrinsically worth less bt that amount (book value) so the price has to drop in lock-step? Or has the stock actually been properly valued above $40 on a going concern basis anticipating growth before anyone knew about the dividend, and that it will sustain its value at those levels? I’m confused about how exactly the market treats dividend payments and would really like to understand this…

Add a Topic
5971
👍 32
👍 21650
amdeist1
Member
amdeist1
September 21, 2016 7:36 pm

Any stock that pays a dividend usually drops the day that shareholders that own the stock will receive that dividend by the amount of the dividend. Were that not the case, everyone would buy stock the last day they could purchase the stock and received the dividend and sell the stock the following day and gain the value of the dividend times the number of shares they own.

Add a Topic
5971
Add a Topic
5971
Add a Topic
5971
👍 21650
Pushpa Amin
Guest
Pushpa Amin
September 21, 2016 8:13 pm

I do the same thing Ian Wyatt is talking about on my own. I search the ex-dividend dates of stocks and buy stocks with high and /or special dividends. I buy a week or so before the ex-div date. Some of the stocks drop down drastically on the ex-div date. But they do come up in a few weeks. I sell the stocks later when the price gets closer to the buying price.

I came across SYNT on Sept 19, just before the ex-div date. I bought 1000 shares right away at $42.53. To my great surprise the price did not go down on the ex-div date but went up. And to-day’s closing price was $43.12. I have my fingers crossed and will sell the stock after the record date.

After I bought the stock I came across Ian Wyatt’s sales pitch and knew it was SYNT. But how can he make a sales pitch one day before the Ex-div date? Anyone who falls for the trap will not be able to get the 35% return he is using as a bait.

Add a Topic
740
Add a Topic
4085
Add a Topic
152
rama722
Member
rama722
September 22, 2016 9:08 am
Reply to  Pushpa Amin

The ex-dividend date is Oct. 4th

Rahul
Guest
Rahul
September 26, 2016 12:24 pm
Reply to  Pushpa Amin

Would someone get the dividend if the stock is bought after record date of 9/22/16 and before ex-dividend date of 10/4/16??

Add a Topic
5971
👍 21650
daytonturner@yahoo.com
Member
daytonturner@yahoo.com
September 21, 2016 8:24 pm

It would seem to me that one potential benefit might be that if you buy it at 43, take the divvy of 15, and then turn around and sell at 28, you could cover some capital gains. Possible that you would pay a lower rate on the dividend than you would have had to pay if you were able to cover a short term capital gain. However, it might depend on what tax bracket you are in, in the first place.

Add a Topic
372
Add a Topic
372
Add a Topic
899
👍 21650
butitom
butitom
September 21, 2016 9:45 pm

Travis, I just read the post from Pushpa and am very thankful I did. However, the claim that the ex-dividend date was already past did not make sense with the current price going up not down. In fact, I was so convinced we were missing something that I went out to the company website. I am including the text verbatim from the website below and unless there are special rules regarding eligibility for this dividend, then the company has probably opened itself up to millions of dollars of lawsuits for misleading language.

At a minimum, I think you need to add a caution to the Irregulars that they need to do extra due diligence before making any move on this stock. I was actually looking for an opportunity to get a large return of capital to offset some capital losses in one of my managed trusts, and thought this might be manna from heaven. Now I have no clue where to go next to get the facts, unless you or one of the other readers takes the time to call the company and get the facts about the ex-div date.

The following is from the Syntel press release dated Sept 12, 2016:

“Syntel, Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNT), a global provider of digital transformation, information technology and knowledge process services to Global 2000 companies, today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a special cash dividend of $15 per share.

The special cash dividend, is payable on October 3, 2016, to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 22, 2016. Due to the size of the dividend, it is anticipated that the Company’s common stock will begin trading ex-dividend (without the dividend), the first business day following the dividend payable date, or October 4, 2016.”

So you can read that the company expects the stock price to drop on Oct 4th but claims it will only be paid to shareholders of record on Sept 22nd, which is tomorrow. Something is not right here, and I suspect its an error in the press release because there are a lot of big pocket professional investors who you would think would have dumped the stock by now if it was truly ex-dividend. But is it possible for this obscure firm that their communications officer did not check with anyone from Finance about what ex-div vs payable date means?

Add a Topic
5971
Add a Topic
5971
Add a Topic
5971
👍 71
renzzmar
renzzmar
September 22, 2016 12:57 am
Reply to  butitom

This is my experience at least:

For large dividends (25%+) the record date and ex-dividend dates work differently than smaller dividends. In effect, the record date is meaningless and only the ex-dividend date applies.

I think it’s accurate in practice to say that regardless of the dividend size, the ex-dividend date always identifies who is ultimately entitled to receive the dividend. Yes, for large dividends the ex-dividend dates is correctly later than the record date by regulation.

Below is from the SEC website:
“If the dividend is 25% or more of the stock value, special rules apply to the determination of the ex-dividend date. In these cases, the ex-dividend date will be deferred until one business day after the dividend is paid.”

I believe the idea behind this is that a large dividend is more dangerous in terms of the stock price drop ex-dividend, and thus the powers that be eliminate any the ability for a seller to pocket the dividend and leave an unsuspecting buyer with a stock that is scheduled to drop significantly in 2-3 days (the ex-div to record date period).

If I’m not mistaken, you only have to have purchased (not settled) the stock before the ex-dividend date. The ad states you must be owner of record by Oct 3rd, but the ex-dividend date is the “purchase by” date always.

Add a Topic
152
Add a Topic
152
Add a Topic
152
👍 21650
Pushpa Amin
Guest
Pushpa Amin
September 22, 2016 2:12 pm
Reply to  butitom

Thank you so much butitom. Your comment is very helpful to me. I missed the ex-div date “miscommunication” by Syntel in their September 12 press release. Now I have to find out what is the correct date. In any case I will be watching this stock very closely.

BTW The Seeking Alpha article mentioned by Travis is very interesting.

Add a Topic
5971
Add a Topic
3551
Frank Johnson
September 21, 2016 10:31 pm

it would seem that you would sell before x date and pay cap gain rate instead of ord. income rate.. if you had held it i yr or more

Add a Topic
372
Add a Topic
996
bronexi
Guest
bronexi
September 22, 2016 4:14 am

In response to butitom, note the following from an SEC bulletin:
“If the dividend is 25% or more of the stock value, special rules apply to the determination of the ex-dividend date. In these cases, the ex-dividend date will be deferred until one business day after the dividend is paid.”

Add a Topic
5971
bronexi
Guest
bronexi
September 22, 2016 7:48 am

Folks also should not ignore the holding period requirement to assure the “qualified” nature of the dividend, if that is important to you: the stock needs to be held for more than 60 days during the 120-day window starting 60 days prior to the ex date.

Add a Topic
5971
Charlie L
Guest
Charlie L
February 14, 2017 11:37 am

Yes, it dropped and has not recovered. It’s 22.03 four months later. That’s over 50% drop. Would some kind of short option have been the best way to go?

Add a Topic
899

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies.

More Info  
32
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x