Massive Gains for Dividends in 2010, More to Come (CSCO, MCD, JPM, SBUX, UNH, MSFT, T, WY, AAPL, GE, MMM)

Standard & Poor’s has released a very positive dividend development trend for 2010 that covers roughly 7,000 public shares that report dividend information.  It is no small sum.  The third quarter of 2010 saw a gain of $5.1 billion in dividend payouts, up from a gain of about $3.0 billion for the same period in 2009.  As far as year-to-date in 2010, the first nine months showed a dividend hike rate of a whopping $18.5 billion.  As far as fresh dividend trends, here are some key issues covered that are not time-sensitive from 24/7 Wall St.:

• McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) hiked its dividend;
• Tech giants that should follow Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) in dividends;
• Get ready for the JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) dividend return;
• Hikes in tobacco dividends;
• The 10 Biggest Dividend Stories of 2010 (GE, SBUX, UNH, MSFT, INTC, JPM, VZ, T, WMT, WY, BP, CSCO, AAPL)
• 10 safest dividends by sector (MMM, PG, WMT, MSFT, PFE, KO, YUM, V, VZ, AEP)

S&P noted in its research that only 35 cut their dividend payments in Q3-2010, down from 135 in Q3-2009.  The hikes were impressive at more than 56% to 299 in Q3-2010 from the 191 in Q3-2009.  Year-to-date, 117 cut dividends versus a whopping 730 who cut the dividends for the same period of 2009.  As far as gains for the year to date in the first 9 months, that comes to 1033 companies versus 707 that raised dividends for the same period in 2009.

The $5.1 billion in increased payouts announced in Q3 compares to a gain of $3.0 billion a year ago.  S&P noted, “On a dollar-weighted basis, the first nine months of 2010 saw a net gain in annual dividend rates of $18.5 billion compared to a $45.7 billion decline in rates during the comparable period of 2009.”

We have now seen more than 1,000 dividend hikes in 2010 and dividend cuts are down 84%.  More detail and data can be found in the full S&P report.

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JON C. OGG