In the fourth quarter, 101 companies, or 7% of the universe (stocks with greater than a $1 billion market capitalization), cut dividends. The percentage is in line with the previous five quarters. One-quarter of the companies raised dividends. During difficult economic times or periods of uncertainty, the proportion that lower dividends typically rises to more than 10%. For instance, in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, 10% to 12% of companies cut payouts. More recently, in the second quarter of 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, 12% of companies lowered dividends, and only 13% raised them.
Although it's early in 2022, with only 188 companies announcing dividends, thus far, 2% have made cuts, 76% maintained payments at the same level and 22% raised them.
