Dividends By The Numbers In February 2019

For U.S. dividend-paying companies, February 2019 was a down month, with a lower number of firms increasing their dividends and a higher number of firms announcing dividend cuts than in the same month a year ago.

Here is the official tally for February 2019's dividend metadata from Standard & Poor's:
In February 2019, 3,650 U.S. firms declared dividends, an increase of 1,174 over the 2,476 recorded in January 2019. That figure is also an increase of 157 over the number recorded in February 2018. 42 U.S. firms announced they would pay an extra, or special, dividend to their shareholders in February 2019, an increase of 5 over the number recorded in January 2019, and also an increase of 4 over February 2018's total. A total of 292 U.S. firms announced they would increase their dividend payments to shareholders in February 2019, an increase of 75 over the number recorded in January 2019, and a decrease of 30 from the 322 dividend rises declared back in February 2018. A total of 31 publicly traded companies cut their dividends in February 2019, an increase of 4 over the number recorded in January 2019 and also an increase of 11 over the 20 recorded in February 2018. Just 1 U.S. firm omitted paying their dividends in February 2019, a decrease of 1 from the number recorded in January 2019. That figure is also a decrease of 8 from the number of firms that omitted paying dividends back in February 2018. Looking closer at the dividend cuts, our near-real-time sample... Read more