S&P 500 dividend stocks: every yield, highest first

What is dividend yield?

It is the dividend a stock pays in a year divided by its price. A stock trading at $100 that pays $3 a year yields 3%. On this page the dividend is the indicated annual one: the latest regular dividend the company has declared, scaled to a full year, as reported by the data provider. Special dividends, paid once and not repeated, are left out.

Because the price is the denominator, the yield moves every day even if the company leaves its dividend alone: if the stock falls 20%, a 3% yield becomes 3.75% without anyone receiving a cent more.

Why can a very high dividend yield be a trap?

A yield far above its sector's is rarely a sign of a more generous company: it usually means the price has fallen, and prices often fall because the market expects the business to deteriorate and the dividend to be cut. If the cut comes, whoever bought for the yield loses twice: less income and a cheaper stock.

So the number alone does not tell you whether a dividend is sustainable. The payout ratio, debt, free cash flow and how the dividend held up in past downturns all help. And one detail people forget: the dividend comes out of the company's cash, and on the ex-date the share price usually drops by roughly the amount to be paid.

What is the payout ratio?

It is the share of earnings paid out as dividends: trailing twelve-month dividends per share divided by earnings per share over the same period. 40% means the company pays out 40 of every 100 dollars it earns and reinvests or keeps the rest. Above 100% it pays out more than it earns, which it can sustain for a while with cash or debt, or which reflects a year of unusually low accounting profit; if it persists, the dividend usually ends up being cut.

The earnings underneath are the same ones this site uses for each company's P/E: the trailing twelve-month diluted earnings per share the company itself files with the SEC. The dividends on top are the ones it actually paid over those same twelve months, from the history we download. When the SEC has no up-to-date twelve-month figure yet, the row is marked to show the payout is the market-data provider's; when trailing earnings are negative there is no payout to compute and the cell is left blank.

Real estate reads differently. REITs are required by law to distribute at least 90% of their taxable income, and depreciation on their properties shrinks their accounting profit, so a payout above 100% is normal and is not, on its own, a sign that the dividend is about to be cut. For them investors use FFO (funds from operations), which this page does not have: that is why REITs above 100% are marked in the table instead of sitting next to the rest as if the figure meant the same thing.

What is the ex-dividend date?

It is the first day the stock trades without the right to the next dividend. To receive it you must have bought the stock by the previous session at the latest: whoever buys on the ex-date does not get it, and whoever sells that day does. Since May 2024 US trades settle in one business day (T+1), so the ex-date normally matches the record date. The cash arrives later, on the payment date, a few days to a few weeks afterwards.

The dates on this page are the ones companies announce, as collected by the data provider. Before relying on one, check it in the company's press release.

How much US tax is withheld on dividends for non-US investors?

The US withholds 30% of the gross dividend paid to non-resident individuals, and tax treaties lower that rate for residents of treaty countries who file form W-8BEN with their broker: for a resident of Spain, for example, it is 15%. The country of residence then usually taxes the full dividend and credits the US tax up to the treaty limit.

How it works for a resident of Spain, with the official sources: How US stocks are taxed for residents of Spain.

Which are the "Dividend Aristocrats"?

That is the name for S&P 500 companies that have raised their dividend for at least 25 consecutive years; they have their own index, calculated by S&P Dow Jones Indices. This page does not flag them: the per-company dividend history this site downloads starts in 2010, and sixteen years of data cannot confirm a 25-year streak. We would rather flag none than flag one we have not measured.

Is this list an investment recommendation?

No. It sorts the index companies by a figure they publish themselves, collected by a data provider, and everyone who visits sees the same list. It takes no account of anyone's situation, horizon, taxes or risk, and it does not say that a stock with a higher dividend yield is a better investment than another: tomorrow's dividend may differ from today's, and companies can cut or suspend it. Not financial advice.