5i Stock Screener: Reliable companies for shareholders during a crisis

Dividends are the obvious way companies can give back to shareholders, however, companies can also buy back shares in order to increase a shareholder’s ownership in a company. Shareholder yield is a great way to measure how well companies give back to shareholders and is the sum of both dividend and buyback yield. Companies that repurchase shares in addition to paying a stable dividend also give a few positive signals, particularly during these tough times. The first is that these companies utilize multiple ways to give back to shareholders. Secondly, since these companies tend to have loads of extra cash to repurchase shares, they can also halt share buybacks to preserve essential business functions in a crisis and of course, the dividend. Finally, a history of share buybacks is telling of a company’s strong cash flows and liquidity. For this month’s 5i Stock Screener, we searched for companies with high shareholder yield, a flexible balance sheet and cash flows to weather the difficult times ahead: