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Balance Sheet & Debt

Debt-Free Consistent Dividend

Debt-Free Consistent Dividend is a Balance Sheet & Debt screen. It checks every NSE-listed stock against 2 conditions computed from nightly data, after excluding heavily pledged promoters and very small market caps. This page explains the rule, each figure and its source. It lists no stocks and is not advice.

What it does and why

Dividends funded from free cash flow are fundamentally different from dividends funded by borrowing. A company paying a 3% yield while carrying heavy debt is extracting value from lenders on behalf of shareholders — a fragile arrangement that collapses when credit conditions tighten. This screen isolates dividend payers who have earned the right to distribute: D/E below 0.2 confirms the dividend is not leveraged, yield above 2% confirms the income is meaningful, and three consecutive years without a missed payment confirms the board treats the dividend as an obligation rather than a discretionary gesture. No other QP14 screen combines all three dimensions — the plain dividend_yield screen has neither a debt filter nor a consistency requirement.

The rule, step by step

A stock must satisfy every condition below. Conditions are grouped under the pillar they test.

Financial Health

  • (LT Debt/Equity is missing) or (LT Debt/Equity ≤ 0.05)

Income Yield

Described in the philosophy; not a pass/fail condition in the current rule

Dividend Consistency

  • Dividend Years (last 3) ≥ 3

Hard excludes

  • Promoter pledge above 30% of the promoter's holding
  • Market cap below ₹500 crore
Passes the screen

Ranked by Dividend Years (last 3), highest first.

The figures it uses

LT Debt/Equity

Used in a condition
Formula
Long-term debt ÷ total equity, only when equity is positive and not derived
Input fields
long-term debt, total equity
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/financials/{symbol}?statement_code=bs&period=annual
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Dividend Years (last 3)

Used in a condition
Formula
Number of the current and prior two calendar years with at least one dividend
Input fields
dividend ex-date
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/corporate-actions/all
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Promoter Pledge

Hard exclude input
Formula
Pledged shares as a share of the promoter's own holding: pledgedSharesPct ÷ promoter holding × 100; blank when the quarter is not listed
Input fields
pledgedSharesPct, promoter holding
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterlyFinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/pattern/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Market Cap

Hard exclude input
Formula
Close × paid-up equity shares ÷ 10,000,000 (₹ crore)
Input fields
close, paidUpEquityShares
Source of record
Upstox · public historical candles, NSE_EQ|{ISIN} (no auth)FinEdge · /api/v1/daily-quotes/{symbol} (fallback)FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Corporate actions
Adjusted for corporate actions before use
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

What each figure means

Debt-to-Equity Ratio

Total long-term debt divided by total shareholders' equity. Screen threshold: below 0.2.

Low is better

Dividend Yield (%)

Annual dividends per share divided by current market price per share, expressed as a percentage. Uses the most recently declared annual dividend. Screen threshold: above 2%.

High is better

Consecutive Dividend Years

Number of consecutive annual reporting periods in which the company paid a dividend, counting backward from the most recent period. Screen threshold: at least 3 (no gaps in the last 3 years).

High is better

Try the rule

Type hypothetical values to see which conditions they satisfy. These are not real stocks and nothing here is stored.

  • (LT Debt/Equity is missing) or (LT Debt/Equity ≤ 0.05)—
  • Dividend Years (last 3) ≥ 3—

Enter values to begin

How sensitive is it?

How many stocks pass if this threshold were set differently. Counts only; no stocks are named.

A worked example

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Evidence

What the harness measured

no_verified_figureNot yet tested

We have not measured this screen yet, so there is no record to explain.

Live monitoring

  • 5-day IC -0.031 · signal date 2026-10-14 · n 4447
  • 22-day IC -0.015 · signal date 2026-09-12 · n 3840

This is a historical, statistical measurement produced by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD's research harness on past data. It is not a prediction, and past results do not indicate future results. The universe is today's Nifty 500 constituents, so the sample is affected by survivorship bias. It describes how a screen's selections behaved in the past and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation.

Run this screen

Run this screen

Rule version 1.0.0

Questions

How is this screen calculated?
Each stock is tested against 2 conditions using figures computed from exchange prices and company filings, adjusted for corporate actions. The rule is versioned; this page shows version 1.0.0.
How often does the screen update?
The figures are recomputed once each trading day after the nightly compute. A stock whose figures are more than three days old is left out rather than shown stale.
Is this investment advice?
No. This is educational material describing a screening method. It does not recommend any security and does not consider your circumstances.
Educational use only — GoQuant is a research tool. This page explains a screening method and is not a recommendation. Investment advice is provided by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD (AltQube), SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, registration no. INA000018373, under a signed advisory agreement and after a risk profile. Past performance is not indicative of future results.