The Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent economic fallout have resulted in many companies opting not to pay dividends because their operations have been heavily disrupted or are expected to be disrupted in future.
In the case of real estate investment trusts , many companies have opted to delay distribution payments and even declarations thereof. The sector has been hard hit by the fallout from Covid-19 — particularly those Reits that have high exposure to the retail and office sectors. An individual’s return in investing in any company or Reit is a function of the change in the stock price and dividend. The dividend tends to be the more predicable source of return or cash flow that investors can use to draw an income. In fact, over the last five years the bulk of local equity returns has been driven by dividends, as aggregated share prices have moved largely sideways.
Reits have shown the opposite, meaning the reduction in share prices has exceeded the expected decline in dividends over the next 12 months. This reflects heightened forecast risk, but it can also be argued that the market is complacent on the issue.