S&P: 2009 Worst Year Ever for Dividends; Expects 2010 to Show Steady Improvement

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NEW YORK, Jan. 7 /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, 74 decreased their dividend payment during the fourth quarter of 2009 - marking a significant improvement from the record 288 that lowered their dividend payments during the fourth quarter of 2008. Dividend increases remained steady during the quarter with 484 issues increasing their payment compared to 475 issues that did so during the fourth quarter of 2008.

"The fourth quarter was in no way a good period for dividends, but compared to recent history it marks a significant improvement, and when added to the stabilization in increases, supports our belief that the worst is over for dividends," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Indices. "Standard & Poor's believes that the dividend recovery will be slow, and that it will take until 2012 to 2013 to return to where we were in 2007 and 2008."

According to Silverblatt, dividend cuts in U.S. traded common stock cost investors over $58 billion in income in 2009. Increases for 2009 reached 1191, representing a 36.4% drop from the 1874 that increased in 2008, and a 52.6% decline from the 2513 that increased in 2007. The year posted the fewest increases and the most decreases since Standard & Poor's started to collect the data in 1955.

"Worse than the lack of increases in 2009 was the devastating dividend cuts," adds Silverblatt. "For the year, 804 issues cut their dividends payments which equated to an increase of 631% over the 110 issues that cut their payments in 2007. Additionally, the cuts were extremely deep, costing investors $58 billion in income in 2009 making it the worst year ever for dividends."

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.

    YEAR           POSITIVE   NEGATIVE    DIVIDEND
                   DIVIDEND   DIVIDEND    BREADTH
                   ACTIONS    ACTIONS

    Q4 2009              484          74       6.54
    Q4 2008              475         288       1.65
    Q4 2007              792          52      15.23
    Q4 2006              831          31      26.81
    Q4 2005              821          26      31.58
    Q4 2004              754          10      75.40

    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: Standard & Poor's Index Services

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

Standard & Poor's, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With offices in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for nearly 150 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com.

SOURCE Standard & Poor's