Following last week’s surprise Meta Platforms dividend announcement, Goldman Sachs analysts identified 15 companies that could be next. Their list includes the two final names in our Significant Six mega-caps that don’t already offer dividends. Goldman’s jumping-off point happened last Thursday evening when Meta declared its first-ever dividend — a 50-cent-per-share quarterly payout. Coupled with a knockout fourth quarter, the Club stock soared more than 20% on Friday — adding a single-session record $205 billion in market value. Not surprisingly, Meta shares came off the boil on Monday and Tuesday. They resumed their climb on Wednesday. According to Goldman analysts’ models, Alphabet ranked No. 1 and Amazon ranked No. 8 on their list as companies that have “historically suggested a relatively high propensity to initiate a dividend.” They said some of the characteristics of a company likely to initiate a dividend include, big in size, stable earnings, high profit margins, and reasonable valuations. Both Alphabet and Amazon fit the bill and are part of Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust , the portfolio used for the CNBC Investing Club. Goldman said, “On average, share prices react positively to dividend initiations and increases.” Meta’s run last Thursday proved that point. The analysts added that dividend issuance could suggest strength in a company’s future earnings growth prospects, and therefore “widen a company’s pool of potential shareholders to include income-oriented investors.” Companies with dividends pay them out to shareholders quarterly — providing an incentive to own the stock because they boost investor returns. The Club seeks out dividend-paying stocks since we like to get paid to hold pieces of companies that we believe in. We encourage investors to reinvest their dividends. However, we do not – and instead, give the payouts and all realized annual net gains from the Trust portfolio to charity, as is our mission. According to Goldman’s…
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