Episodes

  • The Dividend Corner: 4Q2025 Review & Outlook

    The Dividend Corner: 4Q2025 Review & Outlook
    Jan 15 2026

    In this episode of The Dividend Corner, Nick Puncer walks through Six Charts for 2026 that frame Bahl & Gaynor’s outlook. Rather than offering forecasts, the discussion focuses on fundamental trends shaping markets today—including the scale of the AI infrastructure build-out, rising market concentration, valuation dispersion, and the importance of downside risk management. The episode highlights how history, valuation, and risk awareness can help investors navigate an increasingly concentrated but potentially opportunistic market environment.

    Disclosure: The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers as of the date of recording. They are for informational purposes only, not investment advice, and may change without notice. References to companies or securities are examples only, and not recommendations. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Please see the full written disclosure appended to this podcast posting for additional important information.
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    14 mins
  • Special Edition: Healthcare — From Emergency Room to Recovery Room

    Special Edition: Healthcare — From Emergency Room to Recovery Room
    Dec 18 2025
    On this episode of The Dividend Corner, we’re going to dive deep into the Health Care sector with fellow Investment Committee member Kevin Gade, who’s part of our Health Care team. This is the first step in our journey to allow investors to look through the B&G lens and understand our positioning throughout various economic sectors. So Kevin, thanks a lot for your time today. Nick, it’s good to be here. The most recent sector deep dive that you shared with the committee was entitled Emergency Room to Recovery Room. Let’s start there. Can you talk about what justified that title? Yeah, certainly. Just to level set everything, Nick, it’s been an extremely brutal five years for any sector that you can classify as defensive, whether it’s healthcare, consumer staples, or utilities, and a lot of that is rational. It’s been an extremely strong bull market with the S&P up over 100%. So, it’s natural that there’s a lot of lag to the defensive Sectors. What that has really driven is a lot of narrowness—not only in the market overall with sectors, but as you lift under the hood, a lot of the sectors have really driven that narrowness. For Health Care specifically, Health Care actually kept up. It was a beneficiary coming out of the COVID pandemic, as you can imagine—innovation, testing, and pharmaceuticals. But really since 2024, almost in lockstep with the election, you saw a lot of policy headwinds appear. So that’s been a big driver of the decoupling of healthcare relative to the S&P 500 over the past 18 months. So it’s kind of election-based for now. Certainly, yeah. Health Care being a very diverse sector, many of the industries within it almost have their own policy overhangs that they’re dealing with at this time. That makes sense. And I shouldn’t say election-based—it’s probably more the political process, the policy-making process. Absolutely. Certainly something we’re aware of with Health Care. So that’s a great summary. And despite the challenges landing the sector in the emergency room, as it were, Health Care as a whole—among all the other S&P sectors—still has one of the highest Sharpe ratios. Can you provide some details about that? Yeah, absolutely. Health Care has been a long-term contributor to innovation in the marketplace. Whether it’s improvements in longevity driven by innovation in healthcare goods and services or the demand side, there’s been a focus on health here in the United States. And more broadly, globally, there’s been a growing middle class that’s helped the demand side. What we know from healthcare, for better or for worse for the consumer, is that it is an extremely inelastic good. It’s very much “when you need it, you need it.” So, from a business standpoint, that allows for reliability in the business model. The combination of innovation over the past 30 years and the reliable, steady business model that many of these companies have displayed has allowed Health Care to be the third best-performing sector over the past 30 years. On a risk-adjusted basis—return per unit of risk—it’s actually in second place. That’s a key focus for Bahl & Gaynor, in addition to companies with a growing stream of dividend income and compelling returns. That probably speaks to the value of compounding—that if you have a business model that just compounds with not a lot of variability over long timeframes, you get a pretty good outcome. You don’t need the highest absolute return, but that combination of return plus consistency is really powerful. Absolutely. Health Care, being the second best Sharpe ratio sector, shares top-three status with Consumer Staples and Utilities. By no means do you need the best return profile. The balance of return and stability creates a very compelling profile. I suspect healthcare also has one of the more attractive dividend yields. Does that play into it? Certainly. Across all strategies we manage at Bahl & Gaynor, Health Care has been a key anchor for dividend yield. The reliability of income streams—thanks to healthcare’s inelastic demand—lets companies reward shareholders through stable and growing dividends. A higher yield doesn’t necessarily mean the companies are mature or slow-growing; it reflects reliability. We actually see growth opportunities across the market cap spectrum. It’s interesting—the dividend yield might actually more reflect the variability of opinion of the public around the ability to compound. Part of the reason that we focus on above- average dividend yields is there might be an ability to add alpha if you have a well- informed opinion about the company because there’s disagreement on its future path. So we’re just looking for consistency of fundamentals to drive dividend growth, and that combined with a nice yield is hopefully additive to the portfolio’s objectives over time. Yeah, I would agree with that. That’s a hallmark of our strategies—we want ...
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    22 mins
  • The Dividend Corner: 4Q2025 Mid-Quarter Update

    The Dividend Corner: 4Q2025 Mid-Quarter Update
    Nov 20 2025

    4Q2025 Mid-Quarter Update

    In this episode of The Dividend Corner, Portfolio Manager Nick Puncer discusses current market dynamics and the balance between confidence and concentration across equity markets. With enthusiasm around AI, expectations for rate cuts, and strong equity performance shaping investor behavior, Nick explores how these themes are influencing both large-cap and small-mid market capitalization segments.

    He highlights the ongoing dividend growth outcomes Bahl & Gaynor seeks to deliver, contrasts the momentum-driven performance of unprofitable companies with the steady fundamentals of quality dividend payers, and examines what these trends mean for portfolio diversification and risk management. Ultimately, the conversation centers on helping investors stay constructive—focusing on fundamentals, discipline, and outcomes aligned with their long-term goals rather than short-term market sentiment.
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    11 mins
  • The Dividend Corner: 3Q2025 Review & Outlook

    The Dividend Corner: 3Q2025 Review & Outlook
    Oct 17 2025

    Description:

    In this conversation, Nick Puncer and Ryan Welch discuss the current investment landscape, focusing on the smid market, opportunities for gaining true diversification amid a concentrated and richly valued market, the implications of rate cuts, and the impact of AI, trade, and fiscal policies. They emphasize the complementary nature of a risk-managed approach to investing potentially offered via dividend growth strategies. The discussion continues with a review of use cases for risk-managed dividend approaches to help clients achieve their financial goals amidst market volatility.

    Disclosure:

    The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers as of the date of recording and may not reflect current market conditions. They are provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security.

    References to portfolio characteristics such as dividend yield, downside protection, or alpha are based on historical data and may not reflect future conditions. These statements are not guarantees or assurances of future performance.

    Any references to specific securities, sectors, or strategies are intended only to illustrate the investment process and do not represent all securities recommended for clients. Actual portfolio holdings may differ and are subject to change.

    All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

    Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel is an SEC-registered investment adviser. For more information, please refer to our Form ADV Part 2A.
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    26 mins
  • The Dividend Corner: Refining Bahl & Gaynor’s Income Growth Strategy

    The Dividend Corner: Refining Bahl & Gaynor’s Income Growth Strategy
    Oct 2 2025

    In this episode of The Dividend Corner, Nick Puncer and Stephanie Thomas discuss a recent refinement made to Bahl & Gaynor’s large cap Income Growth strategy. They explore the transition from an individual company dividend yield mandate to a portfolio-level approach, emphasizing the importance of maintaining consistent income growth and managing risk.

    The conversation highlights market dynamics affecting dividend yields, insights from a similar refinement implementation with one of Bahl & Gaynor’s small-mid cap strategies, and the characteristics of an expanded investable universe.

    The episode concludes with what clients should expect going forward as well as some thoughts about the potential benefits of active management and flexibility.

    Disclosure: The views you’ll hear today are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice or a recommendation. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and all investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Any targets or expectations we mention are forward-looking and subject to change. References to strategies or securities are examples only and not recommendations. Investors should consult their own advisors before making investment decisions.
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    10 mins
  • The Dividend Corner: The Artificial Intelligence Buildout

    The Dividend Corner: The Artificial Intelligence Buildout
    Sep 15 2025

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most discussed themes in markets, drawing significant investment and generating both opportunities and risks. In this special episode of The Dividend Corner, Nick Puncer hosts a conversation with Kunaal Kanagal of Bahl & Gaynor’s Tech, Media & Telecom (TMT) group to examine how AI is influencing companies and the broader economy.

    Discussion Highlights:

    • Scale of Investment: AI is widely viewed as a major technology shift. Over the past four years, S&P 500 companies have materially increased capital expenditures, with a large share directed toward data centers and advanced computing. Independent research, as well as Bahl & Gaynor’s proprietary analysis, suggests combined AI and data center investment may be substantial through the end of the decade.
    • Understanding AI Capex vs. Sales: The team discusses how infrastructure providers (e.g., semiconductors, cooling, networking) are often among the earliest beneficiaries of large platform shifts, while longer-term revenue opportunities may develop for consumer-facing organizations (AI Sales), with some business not even imagined at this point.
    • Volatility & Disruption: Like past technology changes, AI has introduced excitement and volatility. Supply chain bottlenecks and questions around software business models may create near-term challenges, even as adoption broadens.
    • Historical Lessons: Prior technological shifts suggest that long-term value capture tends to concentrate where firms have durable scale, intellectual property, or distribution advantages.
    • Investment Lens: Bahl & Gaynor continues to apply a bottom-up, research-driven approach to evaluating companies across all sectors, with an emphasis on financial flexibility and sustainable business models, which may allow these companies to avail themselves of the benefits of AI.

    Important Note: The views expressed represent the discussion as of the recording date and may change. References to specific securities, sectors, or strategies are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute investment advice or recommendations. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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    32 mins
  • The Dividend Corner: 3Q2025 Mid-Market Update

    The Dividend Corner: 3Q2025 Mid-Market Update
    Aug 19 2025
    Nicholas Puncer: Hi, I'm Nick Puncer, Portfolio Manager and member of Bahl & Gaynor's Investment Committee. Welcome to the Dividend Corner It's August 2025, and for this quarter's mid-quarter update, fresh off of earnings season, we're going to be speaking with fellow Investment Committee member and Bahl & Gaynor's Chief Investment Officer, Pete Kwiatkowski. Thanks for your time today, Pete. Pete Kwiatkowski: Thanks, Nick. It's great to be here. Nicholas Puncer: Pete, one could argue that markets today look much the way they did at the end of 2024. They're concentrated, got pretty high valuations, and perhaps the market's vulnerable to small changes in the growth narrative. But investors have been handsomely rewarded for being invested in equities over the last 15 plus years. Now, as equity investors ourselves here at Bahl & Gaynor we don't want to come off as bearish on equities, but maybe a good place to start is talking about the role of risk management and how we manage our strategies given the market backdrop. Pete Kwiatkowski: Yeah Nick, it's a great place to start since paying attention is at the center of our investment process. Our process is designed to put downside protection potential along with inflation beating dividend growth at the center of our portfolio construction and management. We want downside protection potential to be a perennial characteristic of how we invest. Investment environments can change so quickly as we have seen. So, I believe the emphasis that we place on risk as a firm differentiates us. And while equities, as you said, they've done a tremendous job generating wealth for investors over the long run, our timing for this discussion, I feel, is a bit more precarious than usual. If you look since 1999 or mid 1999, over the last 25 plus years, there are only handful of observations where we've seen forward PEs greater than what we've had today, 22 times earnings. And of those handful of observations, all of them have produced negative forward five year returns. So what we saw in the first quarter culminating with the early April drawdown, as well as the recent volatility around the July non-farm payroll release, those were good real world signals that we were appropriately positioned across our strategies to deliver the downside protection potential that we target if you look at how we performed. This primary focus on risk has led our strategies historically having a risk profile with lower volatility than their respective benchmarks. We feel that allows our clients to potentially consider a higher allocation equities in their portfolios than they otherwise might be comfortable with. And we feel, as you know, this can help our clients build more wealth over the long run. It's a good starting point and good context from a risk perspective. Nicholas Puncer: I wonder if we can double click on that risk element and talk a little bit about how we incorporate risk management specifically into our approach, maybe from a company selection or a portfolio construction standpoint. Pete Kwiatkowski: Yeah, sure, so, I think again, I'll double click on the point that we most when you think about stocks, you just think about returns, right? So, we spent from the very beginning when we're looking at stocks, and then how the stocks roll up to the sector and the portfolio, we pay very close attention to how that stock performs when the market goes down or downside capture. We're always looking at volatility and beta. So we have to respect risk first and not just chase returns, which as you know today is extremely tempting. So, what we're looking for within our dividend growth universe, we aim to own the best companies that meet our requirements within that. And while we're keeping portfolio risk within our constraints. So, you know, one big point within that is a stable company that leads its peer group and possesses competitive advantages is something that we would love to invest in. And the main thing there is that those types of companies tend to defend very well when the market declines. To us, that's as valuable as fast-growing companies can be. Nicholas Puncer: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I'm reminded of a quip that think Warren Buffett made where if you have $100 and you lose 50%, it's really unfortunate because you need 100 % return to get back to even. But, if with that same hundred dollars, maybe you lose 25%. You only need a 33% return to get back to even. So, while the return is important on the upside, you know, we're really focused on trying to constrain that downside risk element to keep the capital employed for recovery. Pete Kwiatkowski: A lot of what we do, Nick, is it's behavioral, right? Human beings were all wired to look for returns first. Yeah. We want, we want to chase those returns at times. The great thing about our firm is you know we've been focused on dividend growth for 35 years now and it's just ingrained in who we are so there's no question at this ...
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    26 mins
  • The Dividend Corner: 2Q2025 Quarterly Update

    The Dividend Corner: 2Q2025 Quarterly Update
    Jul 11 2025
    Hi, I’m Nick Puncer, Portfolio Manager and member of Bahl & Gaynor’s Investment Committee. Welcome to our fourth episode of The Dividend Corner, following our mid- quarter update published in late May. Today is Monday, June 30, 2025 and what a start to summer it has been! Markets have staged an impressive comeback following the “Liberation Day”-induced drawdown of the first quarter. The recovery has been impressive in both its speed and magnitude. Given the full summer lies in front of us, our thoughts this quarter will be compact. This is partly an acknowledgement of a season replete with vacations, time with family, and conditions ripe for thought and reflection — but also a recognition of how little has changed with respect to the underlying market risks we’ve highlighted previously, and Bahl & Gaynor’s role in addressing them for investors. Toward the end of last year, we continued to raise concerns about market concentration, high valuation levels, and lofty earnings expectations amid gathering storm clouds. A market priced for perfection was inherently more sensitive to any disruption of the growth narrative. The source of disruption in the first quarter came in the form of heightened trade policy uncertainty, leading the market to correct nearly 20% from its intra-year highs. Many of our conversations going into the end of the second quarter have centered upon “clearing the smoke”, so to speak, around traded policy uncertainty, Fed policy considerations, and other “known unknowns.” Because these variables are unknowable in the near and perhaps even medium term, clearing the smoke entails returning to basics: where we are now, where we may go from here, and most importantly, how to position for it. The fact pattern of where we are now goes something like this: First, markets have mounted an enormous comeback from the drawdown that began in the first quarter and bottomed out in early April, surpassing prior all-time highs at the time of this recording. Second, there has been little improvement in key economic metrics or “hard data.” If anything, some of these metrics have softened recently, likely reflecting the lagged impact of trade disruption. Therefore, the market’s recovery has been sourced largely from a recovery in sentiment (read: emotion). Third, earnings growth expectations have been dented because of the various growth disruptions mentioned, and their future path remains as uncertain as the timeframe for the resolution of top-of-mind risks for investors such as fiscal policy, trade policy, and the Iran/Israel conflict, to name a few. Taken together, this fact pattern means the market has returned to high levels of concentration, valuation, and susceptibility to changes in the growth narrative — a similar position to the closing months of 2024. Where we may go from here is anybody’s guess. That said, the last two quarters have been enormously useful to investors because the drawdown and subsequent recovery has granted them a “free preview” of risk present in their portfolios as currently allocated. We cannot overstate the importance of this opportunity. If our conversations with clients and prospects — as well as the flow of new capital into our strategies — are a representative indicator, we believe investors held more risk exposure than may have been ideal for their circumstances going into the first-quarter drawdown. Now is the time to make thoughtful changes to risk profiles so the progress investors have made over the last decade of excellent equity returns is protected, and so they sidestep serious market risks that have recently tested the behavioral limitations of investors to withstand high levels of volatility. We want to conclude this quarter’s update by highlighting the fact pattern that Bahl & Gaynor offers across its strategies that can address the re-emergence of significant market risks and help investors remain optimally positioned to achieve their goals amid an uncertain future: We begin with the concept of upside and downside capture. Bahl & Gaynor’s strategies have historically demonstrated upside capture ratios amid market rebounds that are relatively consistent with downside capture ratios experienced during drawdowns. Year-to-date upside capture ratios across our strategies have ranged from 63% to 76%. These metrics reflect performance during recent market conditions and are based on gross-of-fees results, so investors would have seen a portion of the recovery relative to the market — though actual results may differ depending on fees, timing, and portfolio composition – but with less volatility. Earnings and dividend growth stability are another important concept. Though the companies we invest in are not immune to growth disruptions, we seek to identify quality companies with ample flexibility to navigate uncertain environments. As a result, our portfolios continue to deliver stable earnings profiles and dividend ...
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    11 mins