Dividends Rose 6.31% in Q4

Last quarter was another good one for dividends for the S&P 500. Dividends rose by 6.31% over Q4 2016. This is the 31st quarter in a row of dividend increases for the index.

For the year, dividends were up 7.07% over 2016. Over the last seven years, dividends are up 115%. That’s actually a tiny bit slower than the S&P 500. In other words, the index has gotten cheaper on a yield basis.

The blue is the S&P 500 and it follows the left scale. The black is the rolling 12-month dividends and it follows the right scale.

For some reason the y-axis indicators didn’t show up, but both axes are scaled at a ratio of 50-to-1. That means that whenever the lines cross, the S&P 500’s dividend yield is exactly 2%. As you can see, it’s tracked near 2% fairly well for the last 15 years.

Both axes are logarithmic. The left goes from 600 to 3,000 while the right goes from 12 to 60.

Posted by on January 3rd, 2018 at 12:07 pm


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