By the Numbers: S&P 500 Dividends

There are thousands of dividend-paying stocks across all sectors of the U.S. economy. But a significant portion of the total dividends paid come from a relatively small group of blue chip stocks.

Dividend Payouts and Yields

The following chart shows the dividends of every S&P 500 company, grouped by sector. The size of each box reflect the relative size of the annual cash dividend paid, and the shading of each box reflects the relative size of the dividend yield, where darker means higher yield.

Two notes on the chart below:

1. In addition to splitting Real Estate from Telecom from Utilities, our Dividend Stock Database includes Business Services as a separate sector. We believe this to be a more intuitive categorization of stocks such as office supply company Avery Dennison (AVY) (typically included in the Materials sector alongside gold miners) and staffing firm Robert Half (RHI) (typically included in the Industrials sector, alongside Aerospace and Defense companies and Railroads).
2. To see a detailed breakdown of a sector, simply click on a sector’s name; to return to the main view, right click anywhere on the chart.

Click here for a static version of this chart.

There are several interesting observations from the image above:

1. The Technology sector pays out about $51 billion in annual dividends, which puts it ahead of all other sectors including Consumer Discretionary ($50 billion) and Financials ($48 billion);
2. Utilities, Telecom, and Real Estate are traditional destinations for investors seeking high yields. But these three sectors combine to pay out only about 14 percent of the total S&P 500 dividends;
3. The highest yields at present are concentrated in the Energy sector. As prices have cratered along with crude prices, several stocks exhibit unsustainable dividend yields.

Dividend Payers vs. Non-Dividend Payers by Market Cap

The following chart shows the entire S&P 500 — including the 101 companies that don’t pay cash dividends — by market cap. Non-dividend stocks are highlighted in blue; all dividend payers, regardless of cash dividend or yield, are shown in light yellow:

Click here for a static version of this chart.

This view of the S&P 500 provides some additional insights:

1. There are six sectors of the S&P 500 in which more than 90 percent of the companies pay dividends: Utilities (100 percent), Business Services (100 percent), Consumer Staples (95 percent), Financials (94 percent), Materials (93 percent), and Real Estate (92 percent);
2. Health Care is the only sector in which fewer than half of the companies pay a dividend (28 of the 57 companies);
3. The four largest non-dividend stocks — Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG) — have a combined market cap of $1.3 trillion.

Stocks with Negative Earnings

The final chart below again shows all components of the S&P 500 by market cap. Stocks with negative earnings but no dividend are shown in blue; those with negative earnings over the last four quarters and a cash dividend are shown in red:

Click here for a static version of this chart.

The following information accompanies this representation of the S&P 500:

1. Of the 19 stocks in the S&P 500 that currently pay a dividend but had negative earnings over the last 12 months, nine are in the Energy sector;
2. There are 29 S&P 500 companies that had negative earnings over the last 12 months, but 40 that had negative earnings in the most recent quarter;
3. After Amazon, the largest companies with negative earnings were Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Salseforce.com (CRM), and Andarko Petroleum (APC).

This article, By the Numbers: S&P 500 Dividends, first appeared on Dividend Reference.