Given rising interest rates, there could be consequential pressure on companies to boost their dividends and income stocks could see a boom as a result. In this clip from "Ask Us Anything" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on July 12, Motley Fool contributors Lou Whiteman and Tyler Crowe further delve into how income stocks could boom given the current market conditions.
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Lou Whiteman: For a while, companies could get away with measly dividends because of where rates were. When you're basically, all money is a competition, and when your bank account is yielding 0.05%. If you're an income-focused investor, 1% dividend looks pretty good. As rates rise, there will be more pressure on these companies that are hoarding income-focused investors to try to bring up their dividend. We're actually about to go through a pretty healthy boom period for income stocks as far as choosing those payout ratios. Is that a good investment thesis or what's wrong with that? I put you on the spot here, but it's just a fascinating thought. To some extent, that creates more risk obviously. That's the first thought that comes to my head. But there's probably something to it where, if I'm a CEO and I can probably handle a little bit higher of a dividend, but I've been avoiding it just because, why bother? Maybe now you've got to bother.
Tyler Crowe: Maybe. I don't know. How often does reacting to the moment of the market work out for you?
Whiteman: Yeah, it's a great point.
Crowe: Maybe just keep hoarding the cash a little bit and go for some optionality, and maybe you're juicing your payout growth over 5-10 years versus like, "I'm going to jack this thing up 20% now." Maybe instead of going for that, I'm going from my annualized bumps of 10-12%. Maybe I'm now in the 12-15% range and I'm going to be able to handle that for the next five years. Maybe some cash is going to build up on the balance sheet in the interim as a result. But that's fine. I'm a little bit more comfortable with that, without making drastic changes based on rising interest rates today. Don't be over-reactionary because we don't know what's coming down the pipe.
Whiteman: Interest rates are done anyway now, right? It's old news.
