The Dividend Boom Is Far From Over

When I was 14, my grandmother gave me 200 shares of a small insurance company called Statesman Group, which eventually became American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG). The certificates were buried somewhere in my father's law office, but dividend checks appeared in my mailbox every three months. (I remember they were usually for about $50. That was big money for a teenager in the early 1980s.) I always thought -- and still do -- that that was the neatest thing in the world: getting paid just to own stock.

Recently, I received a copy of J.P. Morgan Asset Management's quarterly Guide to the Markets. Compiled by the amazingly insightful David Kelly and his team, I've found this to be an incredibly resourceful research tool. In the equities section, there's an interesting study on the deployment of corporate cash among S&P 500 companies. American companies, as represented by the index, are currently holding nearly 30% of their assets in cash and cash equivalents. This is up from 20% at the onset of the financial crisis and nearly double the percentage held at the beginning of the 21st century. Eventually, this cash will go somewhere. Why not to shareholders?

Source: Insider Monkey

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