The U.S. stock market started January 2022 on a strong footing for dividend paying stocks. The market's dividend metadata for the month reveals both month-over-month and year-over-year improvement, although the year-over-year data is skewed by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Let's dive straight into our summary of January 2022's dividend metadata!
- In January 2022, a total of 5,159 U.S. firms declared dividends during the month. That's down 172 from December 2021's total of 5,331, but is up 3,693 year-over-year from January 2021's coronavirus pandemic low.
- Just 59 publicly traded companies announced they would pay an extra, or special, dividend in January 2022. That's 109 fewer than the previous month and 54 fewer than January 2021's count of 113.
- There were 198 dividend increases declared in January 2022, and increase of 53 from the 145 announced in December 2021. That's 24 more than had been recorded a year earlier in January 2021.
- 17 firms announced they would reduce their dividends in January 2022, just two less than the number recorded in December 2021. Compared to January 2021 however, the month's total is 15 less.
- No companies announced they would suspend or omit making dividend payments in January 2022, unchanged from December 2021's level, and three fewer than the number of companies taking that action a year earlier in January 2021.
The following chart puts January 2022's data for dividend rises and cuts into visual context with the preceding eighteen years worth of monthly U.S. stock market data:
At the beginning of January 2022, we find the U.S. stock market is carrying the momentum of its previous year of strength. We would be remiss however if we didn't point out that this data, and in particular, the number of dividend decreases each month, provides a near real-time indicator of the relative health of the U.S. economy, but one that slightly lags behind it.
That's to say that what lies ahead for 2022 may be very different from what the market experienced in 2021.