U.S. Companies Add $11.2 Billion to Dividend Payments in Second Quarter

NEW YORK, July 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Indices announced today that dividend increases rose 32.5% during the second quarter of 2011 to 444 from the 335 recorded during the second quarter of 2010. Of the approximately 7,000 publicly owned companies that report dividend information to S&P, only 21 decreased their dividend payment during the second quarter of 2011 versus the 34 that lowered their payment during the second quarter of 2010.

"If dividends were a paycheck, dividend investors would have received an 11.1% raise in the first half of 2011," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at S&P Indices. "Dividend increases are commitments not just to current payments but to upcoming obligations. Companies need to be sure that their earnings and cash flow will continue into future periods to satisfy payments."

Silverblatt notes that yields for paying issues increased to 2.51% at the end of the second quarter from the 2.39% rate posted at the end of the first quarter. The percentage of issues paying a dividend was constant in the second quarter, with 39.3% of the issues paying a cash dividend (the same as the first quarter), but up considerably from the 37.9% at year-end 2010.  

Additionally, Silverblatt reports that individual investors have saved $274 billion on qualified dividend tax cuts from 2003 through 2010. "The two-year extension of the lower dividend tax rate added another $74 billion directly into the hands of investors, with a portion of it going back into the market via reinvestment programs, thereby supporting stock prices. However, the post 2012 tax outlook treatment is very much up in the air, as Washington works out revenue requirements and expenditures."

For the remainder of 2011, Silverblatt expects to see more dividend increases across all sectors, with few decreases. "We expect to see dividend increases continue across the board for all sectors during the second half of 2011, but at a slightly lower pace than we've seen during the first half of the year."

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.

About S&P Indices

S&P Indices, a world leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Over $1.25 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/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, the S&P Global BMI, an index with approximately 11,000 constituents, the S&P GSCI, the industry's most closely watched commodities index, and the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index, the premier investable index for U.S. municipal bonds. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

SOURCE Standard & Poor's