Has low earnings growth stopped companies generating dividend growth?

With some companies unable to generate the necessary earnings growth to continue increasing dividends, Gervais Williams, manager of the Miton MicroCap trust, explores the options for investors to ensure their portfolios continue to generate a rising income

Markets have staged something of a recovery in recent weeks. This is good news for the agile short-term investor, but unfortunately the returns on mainstream indices are more mixed over other time frames. Returns appear quite reasonable over the last 12 months, given that indices marked a low this time last year. But, in contrast, returns over the last two years have been distinctly unexciting. Overall, with markets gyrating aggressively, most investors feel ill equipped to determine whether their chosen fund is doing a good job in safely guiding their capital through these testing pe...