S&P 500 Dividend Payers Climb to Highest in 12 Years
More Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies are paying dividends than at any time since January 2000 after Apple Inc. (AAPL), Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) and six other corporations initiated payouts this year.
The number has risen to 401, according to data compiled by Howard Silverblatt, S&P’s senior index analyst. His estimate for total payouts this year, which Silverblatt said is under review, is a record $279 billion.
Nasdaq OMX, the second-biggest U.S. operator of stock exchanges, announced its first dividend yesterday. Apple, the world’s biggest company by market value, unveiled one in March after canceling its program in 1996. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) increased its dividend yesterday for the 30th straight year, making its $10.7 billion annual distribution the largest in the world, according to Silverblatt.
Companies are increasing shareholder returns in the form of dividends and buybacks after the 2008 financial crisis led them to hoard cash to a record $1 trillion by the end of 2011. The rise in payouts coincides with a 13th quarter of better-than- estimated earnings.
“Given underlying fundamentals, low payouts and cash reserves, 2012 should set a record high for cash dividend payments,” Silverblatt wrote in an e-mail today.
S&P 500 companies distributed a record $248 billion in cash to shareholders in 2008, when 372 companies paid dividends, according to his report.
To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney Kisling in New York at wkisling@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net
S&P 500 Dividend Payers Climb to Highest in 12 Years, S&P Says
Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images
An Apple retail store in Hong Kong.
An Apple retail store in Hong Kong. Photographer: Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Jason Gammel, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd., talks about Exxon Mobil Corp., which yesterday announced a 21 percent increase in its quarterly dividend. Gammel also discusses Repsol YPF SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg)
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Alec Young, global equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, talks about the correlation between the U.S. economy and corporate earnings. Young, speaking with Betty Liu, Joshua Lipton and Dominic Chu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop," also discusses investment strategy. (Source: Bloomberg)
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