Dividends Soar to Record After Tax Cuts and Bank Stress Tests

Pedestrians pass in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Monday, June 4, 2018.Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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By Brandon Kochkodin

July 3, 2018 at 3:04 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

S&P 500 Index members are gearing up to pay out $124.1 billion in dividends in the coming months, a new quarterly record according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The new high was ushered in by a lower corporate tax rate and the results of last week’s Federal Reserve stress tests. Dividend declarations made during the second quarter were 12 percent higher than in the prior year, two percentage points greater than the increase from 2016 to 2017.