Snapshot Of Cumulative Dividends Cuts Through The End Of Q2 2018

We're completing the picture that our real-time sampling of dividend cuts during the second quarter of 2018 has been painting. Through Wednesday, 27 June 2018, with 2018-Q2 all but over, this remarkably simple measure of the near-real-time health of the private sector of the U.S. economy is signaling that while some recessionary conditions are present, overall, things have been pretty good for publicly-traded U.S. businesses.
How good? Our first chart compares the nearly completed 2018-Q2 against the preceding quarter of 2018-Q1, where we find a similar number of firms cutting dividends in both quarters in our sampling:

2018-Q2, however, saw fewer dividend cuts reported via our primary sources for real-time dividend cut announcements than did the year-ago period of 2017-Q2, which suggests that business conditions have improved year over year.

Since our last snapshot of cumulative dividend cuts during 2018-Q2, there have been just nine additions to our list of firms announcing reductions in their dividends. Here's the short list:
Permian Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE: PBT)
Pacific Coast Oil Trust (NYSE: ROYT)
Arlington Asset Investment (NYSE: AI)
Mesa Royalty Trust (NYSE: MTR)
Anworth Mortgage Asset (NYSE: ANH)
PermRock Royalty Trust (NYSE: PRT)
LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE: LHO)
Capstead Mortgage (NYSE: CMO)
San Juan Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE: SJT)
This short list, which spans the calendar month of June 2018, is... Read more