The U.S. stock market saw a rise in dividend payouts during the year’s third quarter, according to an analysis by S&P Dow Jones Indices.
The Q3 increase in dividend payments comes after a decline seen in this year’s second quarter and was led by the $3.1 billion U.S. dividend initiation of T-Mobile (TMUS), and a $2.1 billion U.S. increase to the dividends paid by Microsoft (MSFT).
The average dividend yield among companies listed on the benchmark S&P 500 index stood at 1.63% on the last trading day of September, said the note from S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Real-estate and utilities stocks continue to offer the highest dividend yields among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors at 3.89% and 3.72%, respectively.
However, utility and real-estate stocks are also the worst-performing S&P 500 sectors this year. Utility stocks have fallen 19.6% in 2023 while real estate stocks are down 10.3%.
Also, the yields offered by stocks are below what investors have been able to get in the U.S. Treasury bond market, where yields are approaching 5%.
All three U.S. stock indices – the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones Industrial Average – ended the third quarter that runs from July through September in the red.
