US investors were paid record dividends in 2020, study finds

• US stock investors were paid a record amount of dividends in 2020, according to the Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index.
• Despite the global pandemic, US dividend payments climbed 2.6% to a record high of $503.1 billion last year.
• Around the globe, dividends faced a net decline, with the UK and Europe seeing the most severe dividend cuts.
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US stock investors were paid a record amount of dividends in 2020, according to the latest edition of the Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index.

Despite the global pandemic, US dividend payments climbed 2.6% to a record high of $503.1 billion last year.

According to Janus Henderson data, just one in fourteen US companies cancelled its dividend between April and 2020 this year. Around the globe however, payouts were less positive. Dividend payments around the world fell to $1.26 trillion during 2020, a 12.2% decline, with the UK and Europe facing the most severe dividend cuts.

"In North America, companies were able to conserve cash and protect their dividends by suspending or reducing share buybacks instead, and regulators were more lenient with the banks," said Janus Henderson.

North America accounted for 49% of the world's dividends in 2020.

Additionally, two thirds of companies around the globe increased their dividends or held them steady, while only one in eight cancelled its payout altogether, and one in five made a cut.

The company anticipates that sectors of the market that paid dividends in 2020 are likely to repeat performance in 2021, but other areas will continue to struggle until the pandemic wanes and the economy fully reopens.

Janus Henderson analyzed dividends paid by the 1,200 largest firms by market capitalization each year to collect data.