Greetings,

How to add a screening condition that looks for companies that have consistently paid dividents over a long period of time ? 10 years for instance. The the "Dividend" menu, I dont see a datapoint that could be used for condition.
Is there a field available for this ?

Thanks
AK

AK,

You can use a set of Free Form Conditions to check that the dividends paid are stable or increasing over 10 years. The Dividends Paid variable on the cash flow statement can be used for this purpose. Since the variable is negative, the conditions would be:

Dividends Paid(A) <= Dividends Paid(A-1)
Dividends Paid(A-1) <= Dividends Paid(A-2)
Dividends Paid(A-2) <= Dividends Paid(A-3)
Dividends Paid(A-3) <= Dividends Paid(A-4)
Dividends Paid(A-4) <= Dividends Paid(A-5)
Dividends Paid(A-5) <= Dividends Paid(A-6)
Dividends Paid(A-6) <= Dividends Paid(A-7)
Dividends Paid(A-7) <= Dividends Paid(A-
Dividends Paid(A- <= Dividends Paid(A-9)

That ensures that at least as much cash was used to pay dividends each year as the year before it. This is not a perfect screen, as companies that issue lots of stock, but reduce the declared dividend, would still come up (since they may pay more in dividends each year even though the rate is lower). But, the vast majority of the result set should meet your criteria.

Thanks!