STILL SOME FAT AND HAPPY DIVIDENDS
STILL SOME FAT AND HAPPY DIVIDENDS
For all the talk of dividend cuts, plenty of companies are still raising their payouts. In the past year, 205 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index have upped their dividends, compared with 88 that have cut or suspended them. Among those enriching their rewards: agricultural company Archer Daniels Midland, pharmaceutical maker Abbott Laboratories, and insurer Chubb. With stocks at record lows, investors can find some tantalizing yields from reliable payers. Conglomerate 3M, which recently raised its annual dividend to $2.04, has a dividend yield of 4.7%.
Copyright 2009  BusinessWeek
