
Laura Hurst and Kevin Crowley: Bloomberg: March 18, 2020
(Bloomberg) — To understand the crisis engulfing the world’s largest oil companies, just look at their dividend yields. Exxon Mobil Corp., for decades considered one of the bluest of blue-chip stocks, is paying investors 10%. For Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the Anglo-Dutch giant that hasn’t cut payments to shareholders since the Second World War, its 12-month dividend is equivalent to 14% of its current share price. BP Plc offers a yield of 12.4%, and France’s Total SA 11%. Yields at those levels typically suggest one thing: a significant risk that shareholders may not get the money they’ve been promised.
No Big Oil executive would ever accept that’s true — at least for now. Even as management teams confront both the catastrophic demand destruction wrought by the spread of coronavirus and an oil-price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, they’re determined to keep paying.
“Nobody wants to be the CEO who cuts the dividend,” said Noah Barrett, a Denver-based energy analyst at Janus Henderson Group Plc, which manages about $375 billion. “They understand that any company that cuts, its shareholders will flow into competitors and be very, very hesitant to ever come back.” read more
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