Best Year For Dividend Stocks Since 2003

Last week, there were eight companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that declared rise in their dividend payouts, while another put a number to its earlier declared plan to do so, as firms try to put to work some of the near-record heaps of cash in hand. The announcements were seen after record payout amounts in August and further strengthen 2012 as the best year for dividend-paying companies since at least 2003 in both cash amounts and number of raises.

On the S&P 500, 403 companies are currently engaged in paying dividends, the highest number since November 1999, and August saw a record $34 billion in cash distributions, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard and Poor’s. So far this year there have been around 250 raises, after last year’s pace, when there was 242 in the starting nine months, and the top since at least 2003, according to data from Silverblatt. Below discussed 5 stocks have recently announced dividend increases.

Source: Potential Trader

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