This year through mid-June, there were at least 135 dividend increases or initiations among the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, up roughly 55% from the first six months of last year. And the gains are coming across a broad swath of industries. Chip maker Analog Devices Inc. in May said it would increase its quarterly payout 10%, to 22 cents a share. Dental-products provider Patterson Cos. in March announced it would initiate a quarterly payout of 10 cents a share. And on Thursday, Best Buy Co. announced it will raise its dividend by 7%, to 15 cents a share.
If the economy continues to gather strength, analysts say, many more companies will likely gain the confidence to boost dividends this year. So what has changed? Corporate balance sheets, which were squeezed during the recession, are once again brimming with cash. S&P 500 nonfinancial companies had a record $837 billion in cash at the end of the first quarter, up from $665 billion a year earlier, according to S&P.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Related Articles:
________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts Last 30 Days
-
Billionaire Paul Singer has made a fortune shaking up tired businesses. And right now he has a new company in his crosshairs. In industry ci...
-
To live off the passive income from stocks, one of the important things to pay attention to is the company’s distribution policy. Nowadays, ...
-
Whether you refresh your portfolio every five minutes or check it infrequently, like most investors you probably experience some level of st...
-
Utility stocks feature plenty of steady cash flows and high dividends. It doesn’t matter so much what the economy is doing as people still n...
-
The problem is, finding high-quality dividend stocks isn't easy. That's because yield and risk tend to be correlated. In other words...
-
Usually, when a dividend yield is around 10%, it's due to concerns about its sustainability. However, that's not the case with this ...
-
Reinvesting your dividends is a great way to boost the long-term performance of your stock portfolio, but a history of regular payouts alone...
-
We're now three-fourths of the way through 2019, and it's certainly been an eventful year so far. Although the S&P 500 is up by ...
-
If you review past articles on Income Investors, you might spot a common theme: the best-performing stocks are often those of quiet, unassum...
-
While cash flow can come from bond interest or interest from other types of investments, many income investors hone in on dividends. A divid...
0 comments
Post a Comment
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.