August 2025 saw a net-negative result for the number of dividend changes announced during the month. Overall, the net change in the year-over-year total of unfavorable dividend changes exceeded the number of favorable changes by 14, pulling this simple measure of the relative health of the U.S. stock market into negative territory.
August 2025 is the seventh consecutive month in which that has happened.
This negative trend is largely driven by a falling number of firms announcing favorable dividend changes. The number of firms announcing favorable dividend changes like dividend increases, resumptions, and extra (or special) dividend payouts to their shareholders is declining with respect to the same months a year earlier.
At the same time, the number of firms announcing outright negative dividend actions, like dividend decreases or omitting (or suspending) their dividends remains well below levels associated with recessionary conditions being present in the U.S. economy.
This combination indicates firms are facing headwinds in growing their earnings, which is to say their profits aren't increasing as fast as they were a year ago. The following table presents our summary of August 2025's favorable and unfavorable dividend actions, which shows how much they changed both since August 2024 (year-over-year) and since August 2025 (month-over-month).
| Dividend Changes in August 2025 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug-2025 | Jul-2025 | MoM | Aug-2024 | YoY | |
| Total Declarations | 4,498 | 4,698 | -200 ▼ | 4,105 | 393 ▲ |
| Favorable | 174 | 149 | 25 ▲ | 188 | -14 ▼ |
| - Increases | 113 | 104 | 9 ▲ | 119 | -6 ▼ |
| - Special/Extra | 61 | 45 | 16 ▲ | 67 | -6 ▼ |
| - Resumed | 0 | 0 | 0 ◀▶ | 2 | -2 ▼ |
| Unfavorable | 13 | 13 | 0 ◀▶ | 13 | 0 ◀▶ |
| - Decreases | 13 | 13 | 0 ◀▶ | 13 | 0 ◀▶ |
| - Omitted/Passed | 0 | 0 | 0 ◀▶ | 0 | 0 ◀▶ |
The following chart presents just the monthly counts of dividend increases and decreases from January 2004 through August 2025. Be sure to note the falling number of firms announcing dividend rises since early 2023.
Curiously, this is the third consecutive month in which the number of announced dividend decreases has totaled 13. This is the first time we've scored a three-peat in the modern dividend action data for decreases, which extends back to January 2004.
References
Standard and Poor. S&P Market Attributes Web File. [Excel Spreadsheet]. Accessed 1 September 2025.
Image Credit: Microsoft Copilot Designer. Prompt: "An editorial cartoon of a Wall Street bull straining to climb up a hill because a Wall Street bear is operating a wind machine labeled 'EARNINGS HEADWINDS' to slow them down".