Dividend ( Div ) equals the earnings times the dividend payout ratio ( PO ); therefore, the growth rate of earnings can be calculated by the difference between the growth rate of dividend and the growth rate of the payout ratio.
6 Stock Market Returns in the Long Run
EPSt=
Divt
(10)
POt
(1+ gREPS,t ) =
(1+gRDiv,t )
(11)
(1
+gPO,t )
We substitute dividend growth and payout ratio growth for the earnings growth in equation 8. The equity’s total return in period t can be broken into five components: 1) inflation; 2) the growth rate of the price earnings ratio; 3) the growth rate of the dollar amount of dividend after inflation; 4) the growth rate of the payout ratio; and 5) the dividend yield.
R
=
(1+CPI
) ×(1+ g
) ×
(1+gRDiv,t )
+ Inc
+ Rinv
t
P / E ,t
−1
t
t
(12)
t
(1+ gPO,t )
Figure 3 shows the annual income return (dividend yield) of U.S. equity from 1926 to 2000. The dividend yield dropped from 5.15% at the beginning of 1926 to only 1.10% at the end of 2000. Figure 4 shows the year-end dividend payout ratio from 1926 to 2000. On average, the dollar amount of dividends grew 1.23% after inflation per year, while the dividend payout ratio decreased 0.51% per year. The dividend payout ratio was 46.68% at the beginning of 1926. It decreases to 31.78% at the end of 2000. The highest dividend payout ratio (929.12%) was recorded in 1932, while the lowest was recorded in 2000. The U.S. equity returns from 1926 and 2000 can be computed according to
(1+ gRDiv
)
R =
+CPI ) ×(1+ g
+ Inc + Rinv
(1
P / E
) ×
−1
(1
+ gPO )
(13)
1+1.23%
+ 4.28%
+0.20%
10.70% =
(1
+3.08%)
×(1+1.25%)×
−1
1−0.51%
Method 5 – Return on Book Equity Model
7 Stock Market Returns in the Long Run
We can also break the earnings into book value of equity (BV) and return on equity (ROE).
EPSt= BVt×ROEt
(14)
The growth rate of earnings can be calculated by the combined growth rate of BV and ROE.
(1+ gREPS,t ) = (1+ gRBV,t )(1+ gROE,t )
(15)
We substitute BV growth and ROE growth for the earnings growth in the equity return decomposition. The equity’s total return in period t can be computed by,