Methodology › DividendRank and S.A.F.E. checks
DividendRank and S.A.F.E. Checks: How They Are Calculated
DividendRank is a number from 0 to 100 that combines the Dividend Safety, Growth and Value Scores with fixed, published weights. The S.A.F.E. checks are four yes-or-no tests built on the Safety Score and the dividend record. This page sets out both.
What DividendRank is
DividendRank puts the three research scores into one number so that securities can be listed and sorted on all three at once. It is used to order our ranked lists and is available as a sort and filter in the screener. It adds no new data: every input is one of the three scores, each described on its own page:
- Dividend Safety Score: how strong the observable indicators that support continued dividend payments are;
- Dividend Growth Score: how strong the historical and financial evidence supporting dividend growth is;
- Dividend Value Score: how the current valuation compares with the security's own history and with peers.
What DividendRank is not:
- Not a probability. A score of 80 does not mean an 80% chance of anything.
- Not a forecast. It summarizes reported figures and the dividend record as they stand; it does not project them.
- Not advice. It is the same for every visitor and takes no account of anyone's circumstances, holdings or objectives. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, and it is not a credit rating.
- Not a complete picture. It uses only the measures listed on this page. Business prospects, management, competition, pending transactions, legal matters and anything else not in our data are not part of it.
Despite its name, DividendRank is a score on a fixed 0 to 100 scale, not a position in a league table: several securities can have the same DividendRank, and a security's DividendRank does not change because another security's does.
The formula
DividendRank = 0.40 × Safety Score + 0.30 × Growth Score + 0.30 × Value Score, rounded to one decimal place.
| Score | Weight |
|---|---|
| Dividend Safety Score | 40% |
| Dividend Growth Score | 30% |
| Dividend Value Score | 30% |
| Total | 100% |
The Safety Score carries the largest weight; the Growth and Value Scores carry equal, smaller weights. The weights are a fixed choice made by Dividendly in advance; they have not been fitted to past returns or dividend outcomes.
Missing scores and completeness
DividendRank is published only when the security has a Safety Score. If its Growth Score or Value Score is Not Rated, that score is counted as 50, the middle of the scale, so that a missing score neither raises nor lowers the rank on its own account; it does pull the rank toward the middle.
DividendRank carries its own completeness figure, weighted the same way as the rank: 0.40 × the Safety Score's completeness + 0.30 × the Growth Score's completeness + 0.30 × the Value Score's completeness, with a score replaced by 50 counting as 0% complete. So with one of the Growth and Value Scores missing, at most 70% of the rank is backed by data, and with both missing, at most 40%.
When there is no DividendRank
A security has no DividendRank whenever it has no Safety Score: funds, preferred shares and other securities that are not common shares, securities that are not current dividend payers, securities held back by an automated data check, and securities whose Safety Score lacks a required input or has less than 60% completeness. The full list of reasons is on the Safety Score page.
How DividendRank is shown
Stock pages show DividendRank as a number with its completeness and a label that says where the number falls on the 0 to 100 scale. The labels describe the scale only; they are not a grade of the security.
| DividendRank | Label |
|---|---|
| 80 to 100 | Top fifth of the scale |
| 60 to 79 | Upper middle of the scale |
| 40 to 59 | Middle of the scale |
| 20 to 39 | Lower middle of the scale |
| 0 to 19 | Bottom fifth of the scale |
S.A.F.E. checks
S.A.F.E. is a set of four yes-or-no checks shown on stock pages and used in some lists and screens. The name is an abbreviation of the four checks below. Passing them describes a security's Safety Score, yield and dividend record; it does not mean that a dividend is safe, guaranteed or suitable for anyone. A security that passes all four carries the S.A.F.E. flag.
| Check | Passes when |
|---|---|
| Solid | The Dividend Safety Score is 80 or higher and the forward dividend yield is at least 2%. A security without a Safety Score does not pass. |
| Accelerating | The total regular dividend rose in at least three consecutive completed calendar years (an increase streak of 3 or more). |
| Flawless | Since 1990, no completed calendar year's total regular dividend fell more than 20% below the year before, and no suspension is on record. A suspension is a gap with no regular payment longer than one and a half times the company's usual interval between payments, whether or not payments later resumed. |
| Enduring | At least 20 years between the first and the latest dividend in our records. |
The yearly totals behind these checks use split-adjusted regular dividends: specials and other one-off payments are excluded, and a stock split does not read as a cut. A spin-off is not a split, so a lower per-share dividend after a spin-off counts as a decrease. Records before 1990 are not evaluated for Flawless because data-provider histories from those years have frequent gaps. A security that is not a current payer, or whose yield is withheld as a likely data error, shows its checks as "Not assessed".
Before October 19, 2026, Solid required a DividendRank of 70 or higher. The first version of the Safety Score (2026-10-19.1) used a Safety Score of 70 or higher; version 2026-10-19.3 raised it to 80, because most U.S.-listed common stocks scored above 70, so 70 did little to tell them apart. The other three checks are unchanged.
Worked example
Illustrative only
The companies below are hypothetical. Their figures are made-up round numbers chosen to show the arithmetic; they do not describe any real company.
The hypothetical ordinary company used on the score pages has a Safety Score of 86.0 (worked out here), a Growth Score of 79.5 (here) and a Value Score of 63.4 (here).
| Score | Value | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dividend Safety Score | 86.0 | 0.40 | 34.40 |
| Dividend Growth Score | 79.5 | 0.30 | 23.85 |
| Dividend Value Score | 63.4 | 0.30 | 19.02 |
| DividendRank | 77.3 |
Its S.A.F.E. checks, with a hypothetical forward yield of 2.8%: Solid passes (Safety Score 86.0 is at least 80 and the yield is at least 2%); Accelerating passes (10 consecutive increases); Flawless passes (no year with a fall of more than 20% and no suspension); Enduring passes (25 years of payments). It would carry the S.A.F.E. flag.
A second hypothetical company listed less than two years ago has a Safety Score of 72.0 and a Growth Score of 61.0, but no Value Score, because it has too little price history to compare with. Its Value Score is counted as 50: 0.40 × 72.0 + 0.30 × 61.0 + 0.30 × 50 = 62.1, and, if its Safety and Growth Scores each have complete data, its DividendRank completeness is 0.40 × 100 + 0.30 × 100 + 0.30 × 0 = 70%.
The previous DividendRank formula
Until October 19, 2026, DividendRank was calculated differently: from the dividend yield (30%), the payout ratio (20%), return on equity (20%), price-to-book (15%) and the length of the payment history (15%), with several inputs scored by percentile against the whole group of ranked securities, which included OTC listings, ETFs and closed-end funds, and with missing inputs given a middle score. That formula was retired with version 2026-10-19.4. DividendRank values from before that date are not comparable with those after it.
Updates and versioning
The DividendRank is recalculated every day in our morning data refresh, before the U.S. market opens, from the latest stored inputs. Each input is only as fresh as the data it comes from: prices, the dividend calendar and newly declared dividends refresh daily; financial statements refresh weekly, so a newly published quarterly report usually reaches the score within about a week of our data provider publishing it. The full schedule is on the methodology page, and the last refresh of each data set is shown on our data quality page. A daily snapshot of every score is kept, so changes over time can be traced.
The formula version in use is 2026-10-19.4, introduced on October 19, 2026. The version is stored with every DividendRank, and any change to a curve, weight, rule or input bumps it. Each change is listed here with its date, so a score can always be matched to the formula that produced it. Scores calculated under different versions are not directly comparable.
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-19.4 | October 19, 2026 | Financial statements whose period ended more than 15 months ago are no longer scored: the score treats them as missing, so its completeness falls and it may be Not Rated. Dividend-record fixes: a stock split dated on or the day before an ex-date no longer reads as a dividend cut when the payment was already quoted in post-split shares, and a switch from quarterly to monthly payments no longer reads as a cut. |
| 2026-10-19.3 | October 19, 2026 | REITs and MLPs: interest coverage measured on EBITDA (before depreciation). Banks: revenue growth no longer used in the Growth Score, because the revenue reported for banks is mostly gross interest income. S.A.F.E. Solid now requires a Safety Score of 80 or higher (was 70), because most U.S.-listed common stocks scored above 70. |
| 2026-10-19.2 | October 19, 2026 | Methodology review: a dividend cut counts against the dividend record only when the regular rate falls by 20% or more; earnings stability measured as a share of the years available, so a short history is not capped; earnings per share that is negative at the end of three years scores 0 instead of being left out; REITs and MLPs no longer fall back to revenue for earnings growth; the operating-cash-flow yield table starts from 0; insurers valued on book value like banks; BDCs valued on yield history and price to net asset value only; negative equity scores 0 on debt to equity; new Value Score labels. |
| 2026-10-19.1 | October 19, 2026 | First version of the Dividend Safety, Dividend Growth and Dividend Value Scores. DividendRank becomes the published composite of the three scores, replacing the earlier formula (yield, payout ratio, return on equity, price-to-book and length of payment history). The S.A.F.E. Solid check uses the Dividend Safety Score instead of DividendRank. |
Validation
Validation: a point-in-time test of the Safety Score against later dividend cuts is in progress; results will be published here when complete.
The test will compute the score as it would have stood at past dates, using only data available at each date, and compare it with the dividend cuts and suspensions that followed. Until results are published, no claim is made about how well any score has anticipated dividend changes.
Known limitations
- It inherits every limitation of the three scores, listed on their pages.
- Substituted scores pull toward the middle. Counting a missing Growth or Value Score as 50 keeps a security in the rank but moves it toward the middle of the scale; check the rank's completeness.
- Pass-or-fail checks have sharp edges. A Safety Score of 79.9 fails Solid and 80.0 passes; a yield of 1.99% fails and 2.00% passes. Small changes in the data can switch a check.
- The weights are a fixed judgment, chosen in advance and not fitted to outcomes.
Related pages
- Methodology overview: yields, specials, growth and streaks, payout ratios, classification and refresh schedule
- Dividend Safety Score
- Dividend Growth Score
- Dividend Value Score
- Data sources and data quality and corrections
- Editorial policy and disclaimers
- Found a figure that looks wrong? Report an error.
Research only. Dividendly's scores describe securities, not people: they are produced by the published formulas on these pages and are the same for every visitor. They are not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. Data may be delayed, incomplete or wrong; see our disclaimers.