LOCAL ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT | INVESTMENTS Dividends still a popular option By WILL DEENER Special Contributor [email protected] KYLE ALCOTT Staff Artist [email protected] Investors are continually looking for ways to increase their income, particularly the 78 million soon-to-be-retiring baby boomers. That’s why cash paid to company shareholde rs in the form of dividends is becoming an increasingly popular way to supplement income. While two vicious bear markets in the past decade have turned many investors against stocks, companies that pay consistent dividends remain attractive to many investors. Biggest U.S. dividend payers “Savvy investors are moving toward “The farther out I look, the better the “It’s nice to see investors embracing The bottom line The following companies are the largest dividend payers by dollar amount. The dividend yield is calculated by dividing the amount of dividend paid per share by the stock price. The annual dividend yield of the S&P 500 is currently 2.2 percent. Higher yields in our backyard Dallas-Fort Worth companies, on average, pay a higher dividend yield than companies do nationally. This chart shows the dividend yield for Dallas-Fort Worth companies vs. the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Russell 5000 over 15 years. Dividend yield by industry sector While about three-fourths of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index pay dividends, the amount varies widely. Highest dividend payers in Texas Investors looking for consistent dividend-paying stocks have a broad variety of companies to choose from in Dallas-Fort Worth and throughout the state. The dividend yields of some of the most well-known Texas companies: AT&T Exxon Mobil General Electric Pfizer Microsoft Chevron Johnson & Johnson Procter & Gamble Verizon Philip Morris Merck Wal-Mart Intel Coca-Cola JP Morgan Chase IBM ConocoPhillips Altria Group PepsiCo Abbott Labs 5.8% 2.2% 3.8% 4.1% 3.1% 3% 3.5% 3.1% 5% 3.9% 4.5% 2.4% 3.4% 2.7% 3% 1.6% 3.6% 5.5% 3.1% 3.4% COMPANY AMOUNT PAID DIVIDEND YIELD $10.4 9 7.2 6.8 6.7 6.5 6.2 5.8 5.7 5.4 5.1 5 4.3 4.3 3.8 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.2 3 (In billions) Telecommunications Utilities Consumer staples Industrials Health care Materials Energy Financials Consumer discretionary Information technology AT&T RadioShack Cinemark Waste Management Atmos Energy Kimberly-Clark ConocoPhillips Ashford Hospitality Sysco Cullen/Frost Bankers INDUSTRY DIVIDEND YIELDS COMPANY DIVIDEND YIELDS 0 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% ’11 ’10 ’09 ’08 ’07 ’06 ’05 ’04 ’03 ’02 ’01 ’00 ’99 ’98 ’97 ’96 SOURCES: Morningstar; Bloomberg News 5.3% 4% 2.9% 2.5% 2.4% 2.3% 2% 1.8% 1.7% 1.2% 5.8% 5.4% 4.4% 4.3% 4.2% 3.8% 3.6% 3.7% 3.6% 3.5% Russell 5000 S&P 500 Bloomberg DFW Index 1.61% 1.55% 2.14%