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
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 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
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