But, Standard and Poor's hasn't reported any dividend omissions since June 2021. Historically, the number of companies announcing they are suspending (or omitting) their dividend payments follows the same trends as companies that decrease their dividend payments. Only the number of dividend omissions seems out of place. Both favorable and unfavorable dividend changes are up substantially, both Month-over-Month (MoM) and Year-Over-Year (YoY): Dividend Changes in February 2023 The following table presents February 2023's dividend metadata. Pointing out these extremes doesn't do them justice. Record high dividend increases for the month are occurring at the same time as dividend reductions doubled the threshold signaling recessionary conditions.
economy swung sharply from growth to contraction as government-mandated pandemic lockdowns took their toll.īut that's not the case for February 2023. That's even true during the Coronavirus Recession, when the U.S. It is very unusual to have both spike upward at the same time. Only the months containing the delayed fallout from 2020's Coronavirus Recession saw higher numbers in this era.Īs a general rule, when the number of dividend rises is high, the number of dividend reductions is low, and vice-versa. Meanwhile, the number of companies paying lower dividends to their shareholders increased to the third highest level its been during this period. As you're about to see, more companies increased their dividends in February 2023 than in any of the preceding 229 months. The chart spans the modern period from January 2004 through February 2023. publicly trading companies that announced they would either increase or decrease their dividends each month. Let's go straight to the our chart tracking the number of U.S. What we saw in February 2023's dividend actions looks like the best of times and it looks like the worse of times. Our role is to tell you what we saw, shortly after we saw it. We, living in the middle of it, have no such frame of reference. Perhaps historians looking backward with the benefit of hindsight will be able to make easy sense of things. One, above all others, immediately sets up a conflict for the pages ahead ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.").Ĭare to guess which one of these introduces the story of dividends in the U.S. Some are understated ("In the beginning.").
0 kommentar(er)
