How Dividend Watchdog organizes reported information

Ordinary companies

Comparable company reports are evaluated across four implemented indicators: earnings trend, business trend, liquidity trend and cash-position trend. Earnings and business performance help identify deterioration in operating results; liquidity and cash position add near-term balance-sheet context. Each indicator compares supported current and prior-period evidence. Unavailable inputs remain unavailable—they are never treated as favorable.

When a supported assessment is published, the combined indicator states determine Healthy, Watch or Elevated Concern under the ordinary-company rules. The result describes reported evidence for that period, not the probability of a future dividend action.

Equity REITs

REITs use five specialized indicators rather than unadjusted ordinary-company measures: regular-dividend coverage by diluted Nareit FFO, FFO per-share trend, leverage trend, interest-coverage trend and near-term refinancing pressure.

A REIT assessment can be supported with fewer than all five indicators only when the methodology's structural breadth requirement is satisfied. Missing indicators remain visible in the completeness count. Dividend Watchdog does not substitute estimated AFFO where required verified evidence is unavailable.

Business development companies

The BDC methodology evaluates five indicators: regular-base distribution coverage by net investment income, NAV trend, nonaccrual exposure, payment-in-kind income exposure and capital position. Together they provide distribution-coverage, portfolio-credit and financing context using comparable reported periods.

A supported partial assessment must include the breadth required by the BDC methodology. Otherwise it is presented as Limited Assessment or Insufficient Data rather than being forced into a directional classification.

ETFs

Supported ETFs receive verified regular-distribution monitoring, not corporate Financial Health. The latest recurring distribution is compared with the immediately preceding comparable distribution for the same fund, cadence, currency and share basis. A customer event is eligible only when the verified decline is at least 20%.

Increases, unchanged distributions and declines below 20% remain in verified history without generating a decline alert. Special, supplemental, capital-gain-only, corrected, first-observed and otherwise noncomparable distributions are excluded until an appropriate comparable sequence exists.

Financial Health classifications and completeness

Healthy

Available assessed indicators do not currently exceed the applicable monitoring thresholds. This does not guarantee dividend safety.

Watch

One or more assessed indicators warrant closer attention.

Elevated Concern

Assessed indicators show more significant or converging concerns.

Limited Assessment

Some evidence is available, but its breadth does not satisfy the applicable methodology's supported-assessment requirements.

Insufficient Data

Too few comparable indicators are available to establish a supported Financial Health classification.

Not currently assessed

No current published assessment is available, or Financial Health does not apply to that security type.

Full assessment

Every indicator required by the applicable methodology was evaluated for the stated reporting period.

Completeness and classification answer different questions. “3 of 5 indicators assessed” describes evidence coverage; Healthy, Watch or Elevated Concern describes the result supported by the available evidence.

A deterioration or alert does not mean a dividend cut will occur. A Healthy state or the absence of alerts does not mean a dividend cut will not occur.

Evidence verification, corrections and Update Pending

Watchdog uses issuer, fund-sponsor and regulatory evidence appropriate to the monitored event. Financial evidence is aligned to comparable reporting periods; dividend and ETF distribution evidence is checked against the exact issuer or fund identity, amount, cadence and relevant dates. Automated verification is supplemented by owner review where the source contract requires it.

Corrections preserve the earlier audit record and supersede it through controlled authority rather than silently rewriting history. Update Pending means newer evidence is still being resolved while the last-known-good published assessment remains visible. If required evidence cannot be established, the system preserves that limitation instead of manufacturing a result.

Verified dividends and distributions

Dividend and ETF distribution changes are customer-visible only after evidence passes the applicable verification and approval workflow. Historical onboarding records are non-deliverable and establish comparison anchors without manufacturing customer alerts.