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NEW YORK, Dec 27, 2007 -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that it is raising the indicated dividend rate on the S&P 500 from $26.55 to $28.75, and that cash dividends set another record paying out $27.73 per share in 2007 versus $24.88 in 2006. The 11.5% increase in dividend payments translates into a $246.6 billion aggregate payment for the S&P 500 companies in 2007 compared to $224.8 billion in 2006.
"While we have concern over the deterioration within the Financials sector, we believe that the vast majority of S&P 500 companies will continue their long history of dividend increases in 2008," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's. "As a result, we are expecting a 9.3% gain in the actual cash dividends paid in 2008 over that of 2007 which equates to $30.30 per share."
Standard & Poor's data also shows that corporate buybacks have continued to far outpace dividends in both aggregate dollars and growth. "The growth in dividends appears to be negatively impacted by the large expenditures on buybacks in 2007," continues Silverblatt. "However, we are encouraged that 11 companies in the S&P 500 chose to initiate a dividend payment in 2007, bringing the total to 389, a level not seen in seven years."
Silverblatt points out that the tendency for index issues to pay and increase cash dividends is much greater than that of the general market with 77.8% of the S&P 500 constituents paying cash dividends versus just 38.7% for the non-S&P 500 companies. For 2007, Silverblatt calculates that over 60% of the S&P 500 increased their dividend payout compared to less than 28% for the non-S&P 500 companies.
Standard & Poor's also announced its annual update of the S&P 500 DividendAristocrats. The list consists of S&P 500 members that have increased their actual dividend payments in each of the last 25 years. For 2008, five issues were added (AFLAC Inc, Avery Dennison Corp, Exxon Mobil, Integrys Energy Group, and Pitney Bowes) to the current list of 58, while three (Altria Group, First Horizon National, and SLM Corp) were deleted.
For information on S&P 500 dividends, visit: www.marketattributes.standardandpoors.com.
For information on S&P 500 DividendAristocrats, visit: www.dividendaristocrats.standardandpoors.com.
STANDARD & POOR'S INDEX SERVICES
S&P 500 Dividend Actions for 2007 (through 12/26/07)
|
SECTOR
|
ACTIONS
|
INCREASES
|
INITIATIONS
|
DECREASES
|
SUSPENSIONS
|
|
Consumer Discretionary
|
46
|
45
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
Consumer Staples
|
36
|
35
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
|
Energy
|
19
|
19
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
Financials
|
75
|
68
|
1
|
4
|
2
|
|
Health Care
|
20
|
16
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
|
Industrials
|
45
|
43
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
|
Information Technology
|
21
|
16
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
|
Materials
|
20
|
19
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
Telecommunications Services
|
5
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
Utilities
|
22
|
20
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
|
S&P 500
|
309
|
285
|
11
|
8
|
5
|
|
UNIQUE ISSUES
|
283
|
263
|
11
|
8
|
5
|
S&P 500 Dividend Actions
|
|
INCREASE
|
INITIAL
|
DECREASE
|
SUSPENSION
|
|
2007
|
285
|
11
|
8
|
5
|
|
2006
|
299
|
6
|
7
|
3
|
|
2005
|
306
|
10
|
9
|
2
|
|
2004
|
272
|
10
|
3
|
2
|
S&P 500 DividendAristocrats for 2008:
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3M Co
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Exxon Mobil
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PPG Indus
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|
Abbott Laboratories
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Family Dollar Stores
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Procter & Gamble
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AFLAC Inc
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Fifth Third Bancorp
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Progressive Corp, Ohio
|
|
Anheuser-Busch Cos
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Gannett Co
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Questar Corp
|
|
Archer-Daniels-Midland
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Genl Electric
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Regions Financial
|
|
Automatic Data Proc
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Grainger (W.W.)
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Rohm & Haas
|
|
Avery Dennison Corp
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Integrys Energy Group
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Sherwin-Williams
|
|
Bank of America
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Johnson & Johnson
|
Sigma-Aldrich
|
|
Bard (C.R.)
|
KeyCorp
|
Stanley Works
|
|
BB&T Corp
|
Kimberly-Clark
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State Street Corp
|
|
Becton, Dickinson
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Leggett & Platt
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Supervalu Inc
|
|
CenturyTel Inc
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Lilly (Eli)
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Synovus Financial
|
|
Chubb Corp
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Lowe's Cos
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Target Corp
|
|
Cincinnati Financial
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M&T Bank
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U.S. Bancorp
|
|
Clorox Co
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McDonald's Corp
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VF Corp
|
|
Coca-Cola Co
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McGraw-Hill Companies
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Wal-Mart Stores
|
|
Comerica Inc
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Nucor Corp
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Walgreen Co
|
|
Consolidated Edison
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PepsiCo Inc
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Wrigley, (Wm) Jr
|
|
Dover Corp
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Pfizer, Inc
|
|
|
Emerson Electric
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Pitney Bowes
|
|
About Standard & Poor's Index Services
Standard & Poor's Index Services, the world's leading index provider, maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an index with $1.3 trillion invested and $4.8 trillion benchmarked, and the S&P Global 1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline indices. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.
About Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP), is the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 21 countries. Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com.
SOURCE Standard & Poor's
Copyright (C) 2007 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
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