Dividends Increases Shrink

Standard & Poor's tracks monthly dividend information for more than 30,000 firms and provides dividend detail in their monthly dividend action report. For the period ending April 2009 it is evident that dividends are becoming less sacred for those companies that paid and increased dividends in the past.

The chart data below shows decreased and omitted dividends surged to 480 for the four months ending April 2009 versus 111 for the same period last year. Increases fell to 252 versus 632 for this same time period.

(click to enlarge)

Some of the major dividend actions for April:

Full Screen View

Source:

Standard & Poor's Dividend Action Report (xls)

Comments

[Brad Castro:]

Great chart - that really illustrates the state of things. Going back to 2004 gives perspective as well. Thanks for sharing.

Obviously, some companies are still doing well - but not as many as the companies that aren't.

May 05 10:06 AM