Q2’s Dividend Problems

July 9, 2008

By Heather Bell

Chalk up another indicator of the increasingly grim economic situation in the U.S.: Standard & Poor’s says that, of the some 7,000 companies it tracks, 97 reduced their dividends in the second quarter of 2008 - the most to do so since the second quarter of 1990, when 108 companies reduced their dividends. In addition, the ratio of increases to decreases is at its lowest level since 1991. The trend appears to be continuing from last quarter, when 83 companies reduced their dividends and the dividend ratio was at similarly low levels.

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