Furthermore, net debt of S&P 500 companies relative to EBITDA – earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortization – is still two turns less than its trailing ten year average as a result of de-leveraging and de-risk following the financial crash.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that companies are paying out a historically low level of their earnings to shareholders, which may leave room for more dividend payouts down the line.
A few broad-based U.S. focused dividend ETFs:
- SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSEArca: SDY) yields 2.83%
- Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEArca: VIG) yields 1.86%
- iShares High Dividend Equity Fund (NYSEArca: HDV) yields 3.64%
For more information on dividend funds, visit our dividend ETFs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.