House Scorecards

Weekly House Score — Issue #4

Week of November 9, 2026 · All dates and amounts verified from public sources on November 1, 2026.

This issue is a log of grade changes and verified figures under the published House thresholds. It makes no recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security.

Tickers in this issue

Score changes

Two cards moved to bad this week, and one check moved from fail to pass. SWKS (Skyworks Solutions) moved from good to bad: the quarterly dividend was suspended on July 28, 2026, $0.71 a share to none, and the card now records no dividend. The dividend history check moved from pass to fail on the suspension inside the last five years, and the leverage check moved from pass to caution, because the pre-merger net cash figure no longer describes the combined company after the Qorvo combination closed on October 5, 2026. ABR (Arbor Realty Trust) moved from warn to bad: the dividend was suspended on October 30, 2026, the third cut in 18 months, $0.17 a share to none, on a third quarter distributable loss of $0.04 a share. BXMT (Blackstone Mortgage Trust) stayed warn: the dividend was cut from $0.47 to $0.30 a share, declared October 29, 2026, and the distributable earnings coverage check moved from fail to pass, because third quarter distributable earnings of $0.38 a share cover the new $0.30 rate.

Four cards had figure updates with no grade or check change. V, XOM, MPC, and STX each carried a new declared dividend figure in the November 1 refresh: Visa $0.78 a share, Exxon Mobil $1.07 a share, Marathon Petroleum $1.10 a share, and STX $0.76 a share. No other card changed verdict or check state this week.

Coverage watch

MAIN (Main Street Capital) — the preliminary third quarter estimate stands: distributable net investment income of $0.94 to $0.98 a share against $0.795 of regular dividends for the quarter, covering the regular dividend 1.18 to 1.23 times. Full third quarter results land Thu, Nov 5, after close, the evening before the Nov 6 ex-date, so the final figure is readable before any ex-date decision. The regular monthly dividend stays $0.265 a share for November and December.

O (Realty Income) — the 676th consecutive monthly dividend went ex-dividend Fri, Oct 30: $0.2715 a share, payable Nov 13. Third quarter results land Mon, Nov 2, after close. What that report tests is occupancy, funds from operations, and guidance, the three inputs behind whether the monthly dividend keeps its footing.

JEPI and JEPQ November amounts were still unannounced at the November 1 check. No issuer announcement from JPMorgan was found for either fund, so no November figure is printed in this issue. The ex-date for both funds is Mon, Nov 2, payable Nov 4. October remains the latest actual month: JEPI $0.3413, JEPQ $0.56687.

BK is retired; BNY is the live card. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation changed its ticker symbol from BK to BNY effective May 21, 2026, with no change to the company's legal name. The BK page now stands as a record of the retired card, carrying no grade and no figures, and the same company is graded under BNY, which carries a good verdict at a 1.70% indicated yield.

New compare page: VIG vs DGRW. The page at VIG vs DGRW places the two published cards side by side, with nothing added and nothing reworded. Both cards carry a warn verdict. VIG shows a 1.50% trailing yield and a 0.04% expense ratio, pays quarterly, and shows dividend growth of about 7.5% a year. DGRW shows a yield of about 1.2% trailing and a 0.28% expense ratio, pays monthly in amounts that vary month to month, and shows trailing twelve month distributions down 7.9%. The page repeats each card's checks in the card's own order, including the dividend growth check, which passes on VIG and fails on DGRW.

Ex-dividend week ahead

URI — ex-date Tue, Nov 10, last day to buy Mon, Nov 9 · $1.97 a share, payable Nov 25.

V — ex-date Tue, Nov 10, last day to buy Mon, Nov 9 · $0.78 a share, payable Dec 1.

LLY — ex-date Fri, Nov 13, last day to buy Thu, Nov 12 · $1.73 a share, payable Dec 10.

MSCI — ex-date Fri, Nov 13, last day to buy Thu, Nov 12 · $2.05 a share, payable Nov 27.

All four amounts were declared before this issue was verified: United Rentals on October 21, Visa on October 27, Eli Lilly on October 26, and MSCI on October 19. The last day to buy in each line is the business day before the ex-dividend date. No amount in this section is estimated, and no payer is listed on a projected date.

Trap radar

Sixteen cards now carry the bad grade. SWKS and ABR joined that group this week, both on dividend suspensions, taking the count from fourteen to sixteen. A suspension moves a card to bad on the dividend history check alone: a payer that has stopped paying has no dividend left to grade as covered or growing. BXMT shows the other side of the same week: a cut from $0.47 to $0.30 did not move the card to bad, because the coverage check passes at the new rate. A cut is a fact about the payout; the trap grade follows coverage and erosion, not the cut by itself.

JEPI / JEPQ headline yield vs current run-rate — unchanged, and the November check did not move it. With November amounts still unannounced at the November 1 check, October remains the latest actual month: JEPQ paid $0.56687, down 16.9% from September's $0.68255; JEPI paid $0.3413, down about 8% from September's $0.3714. Trailing twelve month yields (about 11.7% JEPQ, about 8.0% JEPI) are backward looking averages; the current monthly run-rate is lower. Not a quality verdict, covered call distributions move with options premiums, but anyone annualizing the trailing yield is overstating what these funds are paying right now.

WHF is a flagged warn, watched rather than re-graded. The grade audit of October 25 left the warn verdict in place and flagged one evidence gap: net investment income of $0.217 a share against a $0.25 dividend, a 115% payout, with the card not stating what funds the shortfall. The card's own watch trigger stands: net investment income recovering above $0.25, or another cut. The gap is to be closed at the next quarterly refresh, and the verdict does not move on an unstated funding source alone.

One concept, explained — the ex-dividend date

A dividend has four dates, and only one of them decides who gets paid. The declaration date is when the board announces the dividend. The record date is the date the company checks its shareholder list. The ex-dividend date is the first day the shares trade without the right to that dividend. The payable date is when the money is sent. Under one day settlement, which took effect on May 28, 2024, the ex-dividend date is the same business day as the record date for most dividends, under FINRA Rule 11140(b)(1).

The last day to buy follows from that. A purchase settles the next business day, so a purchase made on the ex-dividend date settles after the record date, and the dividend goes to the seller. The last purchase that settles in time is made on the business day before the ex-dividend date. A Tuesday ex-dividend date, like the November 10 dates in the week ahead, has a Monday last day to buy; a Friday ex-dividend date has a Thursday last day to buy. Weekends and market holidays are skipped in counting the business day.

One exception is written into the same rule. A distribution of 25% or more of the share value keeps a different ex-dividend date: the first business day after the payable date. None of the payers in the week ahead falls under that exception. The ex-dividend date is a calendar fact about a declared dividend, not a signal about the payer: a share bought the day after the ex-dividend date is the same share, at a price the market sets without that dividend attached.

Sources checked 2026-11-01

Grade changes: House ledger and card change log, November 1, 2026: eight rows, the SWKS and ABR verdict moves to bad, the SWKS dividend history and leverage check moves, the ABR changes if line, and the BXMT coverage check and changes if line. Figure updates with no grade or check change were recorded for V, XOM, MPC, and STX. Library count 636 live cards, 269 good, 351 warn, 16 bad, per the card data file, November 1, 2026.

SWKS: Form 8-K filed July 28, 2026, Exhibit 99.1, suspending quarterly dividends going forward; Qorvo combination closed October 5, 2026. ABR: Form 8-K filed October 30, 2026, Exhibit 99.1, third quarter 2026 release: dividend suspended, GAAP loss of $85.4 million, distributable loss of $0.04 a share, nonperforming loans of $647.6 million across 32 loans. BXMT: Form 8-K filed October 29, 2026, Exhibit 99.1: dividend of $0.30 a share declared for the fourth quarter, payable January 15, 2027, to holders of record December 31, 2026; distributable earnings of $0.38 a share for the third quarter.

Dividend cuts log: ABR and BXMT were already logged on October 31, 2026, and no new verified cut event was added in the November 1 refresh. SWKS was not entered in the cuts log: its card was built on October 28, 2026, after the July suspension, so no as published beforehand card exists for the event.

MAIN: preliminary third quarter distributable net investment income of $0.94 to $0.98 a share, company release October 15, 2026; regular dividend $0.265 a share for November and December. Realty Income: 676th monthly dividend declaration, October 13, 2026, $0.2715 a share, payable November 13, 2026. JEPI and JEPQ: fund dividend calendars confirm the November 2 ex-date and November 4 pay date for both funds; no issuer November amount announcement was found as of November 1, 2026. October actuals: JEPI $0.3413, JEPQ $0.56687, both ex October 1.

Week ahead payers: United Rentals dividend declaration, October 21, 2026, $1.97 a share, payable November 25, 2026; Visa Form 8-K, October 27, 2026, quarterly dividend of $0.780 a share, payable December 1, 2026; Eli Lilly dividend declaration, October 26, 2026, $1.73 a share, payable December 10, 2026; MSCI third quarter 2026 release, October 19, 2026, cash dividend of $2.05 a share declared for the fourth quarter, payable November 27, 2026. Ex-dividend dates and last day to buy dates follow the T+1 settlement rule, FINRA Rule 11140(b)(1), effective May 28, 2024.

BK and BNY: Bank of New York Mellon press release, ticker symbol change from BK to BNY effective May 21, 2026, legal name unchanged; BK stub page and BNY card verified on the live site, November 1, 2026. Compare page: VIG vs DGRW figures and checks as published on the two cards, November 1, 2026. Trap audit: grade audit sweep, October 25, 2026, including the WHF evidence gap.

Educational tool only

Not investment advice, and no score is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.