Continuity, payout ratio, yield and growth in one score: identify reliable payers, avoid dividend traps, automated and refreshed daily.
Save the strategy and StockScorer checks its rules for you every day. You'll get a heads-up whenever a stock crosses the upper or lower score threshold.
Gap to MSCI World: -19.7 percentage points total, -0.7 per year
Index, start = 100
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Based on all 16,182 stocks with a score. Not rated are stocks that the profile does not classify because of a size limit or an exclusion rule.
| Score | Number of stocks | High match | Medium match | Low match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -4 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| -3 | 445 | 0 | 0 | 445 |
| -2 | 484 | 0 | 0 | 484 |
| -1 | 706 | 0 | 0 | 706 |
| 0 | 8,521 | 0 | 0 | 8,521 |
| +1 | 1,167 | 0 | 0 | 1,167 |
| +2 | 1,485 | 0 | 1,485 | 0 |
| +3 | 1,763 | 0 | 1,763 | 0 |
| +4 | 948 | 0 | 948 | 0 |
| +5 | 630 | 630 | 0 | 0 |
Every stock runs through the same disclosed rules. The points add up to a score, traceable down to the individual rule.
Each rule checks a metric against a threshold, here for example “Dividend uncut for ≥ 10 years”.
In this profile, each rule that is met counts +1 to +2 or −1 to −2 points.
The sum is the score. That gives three classes: high, medium, low match.
These terms describe only the match with the criteria, not a recommendation to buy or sell.
Years without a cut are the hardest evidence of a resilient payout policy.
The payout ratio based on earnings per share exposes substance payers.
A yield above 1% ensures there is a substantive distribution at all.
At least three raises in ten years, including the most recent one, count as a genuine growth signal.
These exact rules run over every stock daily.
After signing up for free, you can copy the full profile in the rule editor, adjust its thresholds, and save it as your own starting profile.
See and copy all rules for freeIndex, start = 100
The backtest shows a total return of +220.4%. The MSCI World reaches +240.1% over the same period.
The same strategy with the same settings, started at every possible date. Each dot is a separate run over 5 years.
The periods overlap heavily, neighbouring runs share almost all periods. The spread therefore looks smaller than it would for independent periods. Past results say nothing about future ones.
Strategy calculated without fees and taxes, dividends reinvested.
Point-in-time composition since June 30, 2009: each period uses the members at that time. Stocks that left the market early may be missing, which favours the result.
Historical period, quarterly rebalancing. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Purely mechanical rule application, no curated-list effect: stocks with a high match can fall just like any other stock.
Dots per card, in this order: Profitability, Growth, Valuation, Quality. Filled means at least one rule in the category is met.
For income investors with a long horizon who value predictable distributions over maximum price upside, without falling for the classic dividend trap.
A high dividend yield alone is no mark of quality. Often it is merely the result of a collapsed share price. The 4-factor check therefore tests the magic square of dividend quality, as popularised by Christian W. Röhl with his DividendenAdel approach: Has the dividend gone uncut for years? Is it covered by earnings (25–75% payout)? Does it offer a real base yield? And has it been raised at least three times in the past ten years, most recently just lately? Substance payers (companies funding their dividend from the balance sheet or on credit) are punished hard.
Continuity: a dividend uncut for at least ten years earns +2 points, five to nine years +1. Payout ratio: if the dividend sum amounts to 25–75% of earnings per share, the balance counts as healthy (+1); 75–90% leaves little buffer (−1); from 90% of earnings, or with a dividend paid without an earnings base, it is substance distribution (−2). On top come +1 for a yield above 1% and +1 for a growth signal: at least three raises in the past ten years, including the most recent one; a dividend cut in the past year costs 2 points.
The score ranges from −4 to +5; the upper threshold is a uniform 5 points across all size classes. A high match therefore demands all four factors at once, the original is a strict pass/fail test across the whole square: yield alone is never enough.
Continuity: years without a dividend cut (≥ 10 years: +2, 5–9 years: +1).
Payout ratio (earnings basis): 25–75% ideal (+1), 75–90% critical (−1), from 90% or without an earnings base: dividend trap (−2).
Yield: above 1.0% (+1), as a minimum return, not a maximisation target.
Growth: at least 3 raises in 10 years, including the most recent one (+1); cut in the past year (−2).
The square's strength: it punishes exactly the constellation that classic dividend rankings reward, optically high yields created only by falling prices or uncovered payouts.
Calculation note: since the fidelity round (23 August 2026), the payout ratio runs on an earnings basis (dividend per share relative to earnings per share), as described in the DividendenAdel methodology sheet, replacing the previously used free-cash-flow approximation. Röhl's own three-year smoothing of the payout ratio cannot be mapped with daily data and remains a documented simplification. The growth criterion now counts raises instead of a CAGR threshold, closer to the original than the earlier five-year growth rate. Continuity measures years without a cut, the even stricter view of “years with an increase” gets its own strategy.
For income investors seeking dividend quality rather than dividend size, as a core strategy or as a filter over their own watchlist.