S&P 500 Dividend Yields

S&P 500 Dividend Yields

The list of dividend yields above provides the yield performance of every company in the S&P 500 index.

This data was captured on 06th September 2020.

What is this Data Useful for?

If you are a stock market investor and are seeking to optimise your investments for both dividend and capital returns this data is extremely useful.

It will allow you to see which companies in the S&P 100 are producing the highest dividend yields.

The data allows you to sort the companies by highest and lowest paying dividend yields.

In addition to dividend yields we provide the dividend payout values, price earnings ratios, dividend coverages and 52 week share price high / lows.

What is a Dividend Yield?

A dividend yield is the measure of dividend income a share produces expressed as a percentage of the current share price for the given company.

Put another way, it is the percentage income return you can expected to receive from your invested share capital; it is much the same as the percentage return you receive from saving money with a savings account in a bank.

Dividends are effectively the cost of capital a company is prepared to return to a shareholder for using that capital to grow its business.

What is the S&P 500?

The S&P 500 is made up of 500 Companies. These Companies make up the Large Corporations Index of the American Economy. This is the engine room of the largest economy in the world.

S&P refers to Standards and Poor’s. It delivers to the investor approximately 80% of the total American stock market. It is an outstanding measure of United States economic performance.

Below we have prepared for you the dividend yield performance of every company in the S&P index for the last ten years. This data will help you find dividend consistency, i.e. who pays the best and how long they have paid it for.

The world uses S&P performance as a standard for economic performance.

Why Should You Consider the S&P 500

Many of the Corporations listed on the S&P 500 have true global reach and heft. They are plugged into every sector and many of the lives of the citizens of the world. To invest in this indices is to truly invest in the economy of the world.

Whatever investment strategy you choose remember to keep a balanced portfolio in terms of global footprint and sectoral footprint. To spread your risk as an investor is one of the most important things you will ever do.

What do the other Metrics mean in the Data?

Within the data table you will also find dividend payout values, price earnings ratios and dividend coverage ratios for each company on the FTSE 100. These metrics are useful when used in conjunction with the dividend yield to arrive at whether a share may be worthy of further consideration and research for making an investment.

Dividend payouts are the cash value that is paid out for holding a share in a given company. These are expressed in pence, so for example, Vodafone at week ending 3rd January 2020 was prepared to payout 7.39p per share. When expressed against the share price of 147.94p on the same day this would provide a dividend yield of 4.9%.

Price earnings ratios or PE ratio. This ratio is calculated by dividing the market value per share by the earnings per share value. It is a measure of how many more times the value of earnings per share the market is prepared to pay for a share than the company is actually producing in profit. One could effectively regard this measure of how confident the market is in a share. So the higher the price earnings ratio the better the market is expecting this share to do. A low price earnings ratio could also indicate a company is under valued.

Dividend coverage ratios shows the number of multiples of profit a company has over its committed dividend level. Effectively how many times a company can cover its dividend commitment by its profits. The higher the coverage ratio the more ability the company has to cover its dividend commitment. Another way to supplement this ratio is to check how cash liquid a company is, you can do this by checking how much cash a company has on its balance sheet. Cash will always be king!

These three additional metrics add more credence and depth to the dividend ratio check.

How can you use the Data to get the Most out of it?

This data is a great starting point for your dividend investing research. As an investor you should be looking for value, return, acceptable risk and growth from your share investing strategy. Any investment is a balance of these measures.

To assist with and to supplement your research I also provide the dividend yield history of every S&P 500 company for the past 10 years. This is a measure of consistency of dividend yield performance. A great way to weed out the wheat from the chaff.

Other Considerations when Buying Shares

In addition to these numerical performance measures I recommend you consider some softer, more ephemeral aspects of your potential investments

How moated is the company’s offering?

This means to see how protected the offering of the company is. Is it unique and without competition? Can the company sustain this position in the medium term.

Examples of this could be patented technology which is in high demand. Apple are a great example of this.

It could be exclusive mining or drilling rights to areas with rich resources, Rio Tinto are a good example of this kind of competitive moat.

How sustainable is the business model?

This aspect considers the ability for a business to maintain and adapt its competitive advantage and innovation level.

A good example of this relates to the global economy. It is at a pivot point into new technologies currently, moving away from carbon producing technology to low carbon technology.

Many businesses are exposed this shift, for example oil companies, car manufacturers and manufacturers generally.

If some of your potential investments are in this sphere, consider the robustness of their plans to mitigate the effects of this change on their business. What are they doing to innovate and how fast are they doing it?