30 August 2023

How Many S&P 500 Companies Pay Dividends?

Standard & Poor via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_%26_Poor%27s.svg

How many companies are in the S&P 500 (Index: SPX)? How many of them pay dividends? What factors affect whether companies pay dividends or not?

The answers to all three of these questions are presented in the following chart!

Number of S&P 500 Firms and Dividend Payers, 1980-2023

The data for 2023 is preliminary, reflecting available information as of 31 July 2023.

References

Dai, Zhonglan and Shackelford, Douglas A. and Zhang, Harold Huibing, Capital Gains Taxes and Stock Return Volatility. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=972349 or DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.972349. 11 August 2010.

De Silva, Matthew. The art and science of stewarding the S&P 500. Quartz [Online Article]. 25 September 2019.

Political Calculations. What Caused the Dot Com Bubble to Begin and What Caused It to End? [Online Article]. 15 December 2010.

Silverblatt, Howard. S&P 500 Indicated Rate Change. Standard and Poor. S&P Dow Jones Indices. [Excel Spreadsheet]. 31 July 2023. Accessed 26 August 2023.

Silverblatt, Howard. S&P 500 Market Attributes Web File. S&P 500 Dividend Payers vs Non-Payers Performance. Standard and Poor. S&P Dow Jones Indices. [Excel Spreadsheet]. 31 July 2023. Accessed 26 August 2023.