Shareholders suffer worst dividend cut for 50 years
The fourth quarter of 2008 was the worst for shareholder payouts since 1956, Standard & Poor’s have revealed.
The number of publicly listed companies reducing their dividend in the fourth quarter increased fivefold compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.
Two hundred and eighty eight of 7,000 publicly listed companies reduced their dividend in the final quarter of 2008, compared to 52 in the same period the previous year.
In addition, the number of companies increasing dividends decreased to 475, compared to 792 in the year ago period.
Standard & Poor’s senior index analyst Howard Silverblatt said the worst is yet to come.
According to Silverblatt, shareholders won’t feel the full impact of the dividend cuts until the first quarter of 2009.
He added that dividend increases continue to fall as financial uncertainty leaves companies keeping a close eye on capital.
Category: Financials, Insurance News
Visited 1316 times, 1 so far today
Comments (0)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
There are no comments yet. Why not be the first to speak your mind.