Here’s a Trend to Love: Dividends Continue to Grow

We still have a few weeks left this year, but Howard Silverblatt at S&P tells me that dividends for the S&P 500 (INX) are on pace to grow by another 3% this quarter. That may sound low but keep in mind that it’s on top of the huge tax-related payouts from last year’s Q4. The truth is that dividend growth has been and continues to be quite strong. Since 2010, dividends are up 53%.

The S&P 500 looks to pay out $34.72 in dividends this year. That’s up 11% from last year. It also works out to a yield of 2.43% based on the S&P 500′s level at the start of the year. Here’s a look at the S&P 500 (blue line, left scale) and its dividends (red line, right scale). I’ve scaled the lines at a ratio of 50-to-1, so whenever the lines cross, the dividend yield is exactly 2%.

Source: InvestorPlace

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