May 2024 was a solid month for the dividend paying firms of the U.S. stock market.
The best evidence of that assessment can be found in the number of favorable dividend changes recorded by Standard & Poor for the month. S&P counted 245 positive changes during May 2024, which is up significantly over the previous month's total and is also up year over year, though by a small amount.
Meanwhile, the number of unfavorable changes came in at 11, which is lower than it did in May 2023 but slightly higher than April 2024's total. That small cloud in an otherwise silver lining however is well within the typical level of month-to-month noise we see for unfavorable dividend changes.
The net month-over-month change is +234 and the net year-over-year change is +6. These net favorable outcomes are what makes May 2024 a solid month for dividend paying firms. The following table tallies up the underlying numbers for these measures.
| Dividend Changes in May 2024 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May-2024 | Apr-2024 | MoM | May-2023 | YoY | |
| Total Declarations | 4,419 | 5,367 | -948 ▼ | 4,093 | 326 ▲ |
| Favorable | 245 | 181 | 64 ▲ | 230 | 15 ▲ |
| - Increases | 155 | 124 | 31 ▲ | 140 | 15 ▲ |
| - Special/Extra | 90 | 57 | 33 ▲ | 87 | 3 ▲ |
| - Resumed | 0 | 0 | 0 ◀▶ | 3 | -3 ▼ |
| Unfavorable | 11 | 6 | 5 ▲ | 20 | -9 ▼ |
| - Decreases | 11 | 6 | 5 ▲ | 20 | -9 ▼ |
| - Omitted/Passed | 0 | 0 | 0 ◀▶ | 0 | 0 ◀▶ |
The following chart visualizes the monthly counts of dividend increases and decreases from January 2004 through May 2024.
In next month's edition, we'll dive into the numbers for the second quarter of 2024.
References
Standard and Poor. S&P Market Attributes Web File. [Excel Spreadsheet]. 31 May 2024. Accessed 3 June 2024.
Image Credit: Microsoft Copilot Designer. Prompt: "The New York Stock Exchange with a banner saying 'DIVIDENDS!'"