Dividends See a Rebirth in First Quarter; U.S. Domestic Issues Add $6.4 Billion in Dividends

NEW YORK, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that of the approximately 7,000 publicly owned companies that report dividend information to Standard & Poor's, only 48 decreased their dividend payment during the first quarter of 2010 -- marking a dramatic improvement from the record 367 that lowered their dividend payment in the first quarter of 2009.  

Standard & Poor's also reports that, for the first quarter of 2010, the forward net change in the indicated dividend rate was a positive $6.4 billion which compares quite favorably to the $43.8 billion in reductions recorded in first quarter of 2009 - the worst dividend quarter in history.  

"The first quarter represents a rebirth of dividends in the U.S. domestic market and speaks to the higher confidence that board of directors are placing in both the economic recovery and their future earnings ability," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Indices. "S&P Indices believes that the dividend recovery will be slow and contingent upon continued economic progress and stabilization in the jobs market. We believe that it will take until 2013 for the broader dividend market to return to 2007/2008 levels."

According to Silverblatt, on a weighted dollar basis, dividends now have a higher coverage ratio from earnings than seen last year at this time. Silverblatt calculates a 16% increase in the number of issues covering their dividends, and a 31% decrease in those still not covering their dividend payments.

"Improved market conditions reduced economic pressures and permitted more companies to loosen their grip on cash expenditures during the first quarter," notes Silverblatt. "While many of the companies that have increased dividends have a history of doing so, if the economy continues to improve, we would expect other issues to join the fold."

To download Standard & Poor's Dividend Record, please visit the following web address: www.marketattributes.standardandpoors.com and click on "Dividends". For more information about S&P Indices, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

    
    
    
    U.S. DOMESTIC COMMON MARKET (ASE, NYSE, NGM, NNM, NSC)   
        
    $ CHANGE-MIL         INCREASES   INITIALS   DECREASES   SUSPENSIONS
    Q1 2009                 $2,559     $1,423    -$45,288       -$2,466
    Q1 2010                 $5,287     $1,745       -$467         -$136
                                                                 
                         ACTIONS**     CHANGE    POSITIVE      NEGATIVE 
    Q1 2009                $51,736   -$43,773      $3,982      -$47,754
    Q1 2010                 $7,635     $6,430      $7,032         -$602
    
    **Absolute changes                                         
    
    
    YEAR     POSITIVE  NEGATIVE  DIVIDEND
             DIVIDEND  DIVIDEND   BREADTH
              ACTIONS   ACTIONS         
                                        
    Q1 2010       399        48      8.31
    Q1 2009       283       367      0.77
    Q1 2008       598        83      7.20
    Q1 2007       740        19     38.95
                                        
    2009        1,191       804      1.48
    2008        1,874       606      3.09
    2007        2,513       110     22.85
    2006        2,617        87     30.08
    2005        2,518        84     29.98
    2004        2,298        62     37.06
    2003        2,162       104     20.79
    2002        1,756       135     13.01
    2001        1,668       205      8.14
    2000        1,886       137     13.77
    1999        2,125       144     14.76
    
    * Source: S&P Indices
    
    

About S&P Indices

S&P Indices, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Over $1 trillion is directly indexed to Standard & Poor's family of indices, which includes the S&P 500, the world's most followed stock market index, the S&P Global 1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline indices, the S&P Global BMI, an index with approximately 11,000 constituents, and the S&P GSCI, the industry's most closely watched commodities index.  For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About Standard & Poor's

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SOURCE Standard & Poor's