Over Two-Thirds of Cuts are from Financials
NEW YORK, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading
index provider, announced today that 138 of the approximately 7,000
publicly owned companies that report dividend information to Standard &
Poor's Dividend Record decreased their dividend during the third quarter of
2008, representing a 557% increase from the 21 issues that decreased their
dividend during the third quarter of 2007. Reported dividend increases fell
21.2% to 346 from 439 reported in the third quarter of 2007.
"It was the worst September for dividends since we started keeping
dividend records in 1956," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at
Standard & Poor's. "During the second quarter, companies were nervous and
cautious. The third quarter, however, saw many companies deciding to take
action, and that action took $22.5 billion out of the pockets of
investors."
"Financial issues accounted for about two-thirds of the dividend cuts
and 93% of the dollar damage during the third quarter," continues
Silverblatt. "Also, no longer is it just blue chip companies cutting
dividends. Many of the issues are now much smaller, and more regional. The
problem has trickled down."
Silverblatt concludes by noting that many issues are still increasing
their dividend rate despite the massive number of dividend cuts. "However,
given the uncertainty of the markets and the economy, these companies have
to be extremely confident of their future earnings and cash flow."
To download Standard & Poor's Dividend Record, please visit the
following web address: http://www.marketattributes.standardandpoors.com and click
on "Dividends".
YEAR POSITIVE NEGATIVE DIVIDEND
DIVIDEND DIVIDEND BREADTH
ACTIONS ACTIONS
Q3 2008 346 138 2.51
Q3 2007 439 21 20.90
YTD 2008 1,399 318 4.40
YTD 2007 1,721 58 29.67
12 mo Sep,'08 2,191 370 5.92
12 mo Sep,'07 2,552 89 28.67
2007 2,513 110 22.85
2006 2,617 87 30.08
2005 2,518 84 29.98
2004 2,298 62 37.06
2003 2,162 104 20.79
2002 1,756 135 13.01
2001 1,668 205 8.14
2000 1,886 137 13.77
1999 2,125 144 14.76
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array of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an
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Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP),
is the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence,
including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment
research and data. With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly
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http://www.standardandpoors.com.
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