MoatwareMethodology
How Dividend Analysis Works
Moatware scores every dividend stock on whether the payout is safe, can keep growing, has a real track record, and is attractively priced — so income investors can spot durable cash flow without falling for yield traps.
What is Dividend Analysis
The dividend lens of Moatware focuses on the four questions every income investor asks: can it keep paying it, can it keep growing it, has it actually delivered before, and am I paying a fair price for the yield. We pull the inputs from filings and condense them into comparable scores.
Every score is decision-support, not a recommendation. The goal is to surface income stocks worth a deeper look — and flag the ones whose headline yield is a warning, not an opportunity.
The Framework
Four dividend dimensions
Every dividend-paying stock is evaluated across four dimensions that together describe whether the payout is durable, has room to grow, and is fairly priced. The number on each card is its weight in the overall dividend score.
Weight 20%
Track Record
How long the dividend has been paid, how long it has been raised, the quality of historical growth, and how it behaved through past recessions.
Weight 35%
Safety
Whether the dividend can keep being paid: payout coverage from cashflow, balance-sheet strength, cashflow resilience through the cycle, and profitability trajectory.
Weight 30%
Growth Potential
Forward room to keep growing the dividend: payout headroom, FCF growth outlook, balance between reinvestment and distribution, and policy consistency.
Weight 15%
Yield & Valuation
Whether the current yield is attractive or a yield trap, where it sits versus its own multi-year history, and whether the stock is fairly priced versus peers.
The Scale
How we score
From rating to display score
Each subdimension is rated on a 1–5 scale by our analysis pipeline. We then map that raw rating to a 0–100 display score using a simple linear curve (raw / 4.7 × 100), so 5.0 ≈ 99 and 4.0 ≈ 85. The upper band stays legible without clamping.
How dimensions roll up
Subdimension scores roll up to a dimension rating using subdimension weights. Dimension ratings then roll up to the overall rating using the dimension weights shown above. Every score you see is auditable back to its inputs.
Six dividend tiers
| Tier | Score | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Elite | ≥ 90 / 100 | Top of the scale across every dimension. A rarefied subset of Reliable dividends. |
| Reliable | ≥ 80 / 100 | Bulletproof payout, room to grow, long track record and a fair-or-better yield. Sleep-well-at-night income. |
| Steady | ≥ 70 / 100 | Solid all-around dividend payer with no glaring weaknesses across safety, growth and track record. |
| Mediocre | ≥ 60 / 100 | Mixed signals: respectable in some dimensions, weaker in others. Workable but not a flagship income holding. |
| Shaky | ≥ 45 / 100 | Concerns across multiple dimensions. The dividend is at risk of being cut, frozen, or growing slower than inflation. |
| Trap | < 45 / 100 | High risk of a cut. Often a high headline yield masking a stretched balance sheet or shrinking cashflows. |
The Network
The Moatware family
Six angles on the same stock. Moatware focuses on qualitative moat. Five sister sites cover the rest.
Qualitative
Qualitative Analysis
Moat analysis: business model, competitive advantages, management and risks.
Quantitative
Quantitative Analysis
Financial metrics: valuation, financial health, profitability and growth.
Dividend
Coming soonDividend Analysis
Yield, growth, coverage and stability for income-focused investors.
Technical
Coming soonTechnical Analysis
Price action, momentum and trend signals for traders timing entries and exits.
Growth
Coming soonGrowth Analysis
Top-line acceleration, reinvestment runway and TAM for growth-style investing.
Insiders
Coming soonInsider Analysis
Insider transactions and institutional ownership: what people closest to the business are doing.
The Fine Print
Methodology and limits
Data sources
Public filings, market data and structured reads of management commentary. Refreshed each reporting cycle.
Refresh cadence
Scores are recomputed quarterly. Tier labels are sticky: they only flip when the underlying rating crosses a threshold, so noise stays low.
Subjective by design
Moat is a qualitative concept; we apply a consistent rubric, but reasonable analysts can reach different conclusions on edge cases.
Not investment advice
Scores are decision-support, not recommendations. Always do your own research before buying or selling.
Ready to dig in?
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