Reflecting back on 2015, it is accurate to say it was another good year for investors in terms of shareholder rewards, as buybacks continued soaring and S&P 500 dividends kept growing at an impressive clip.
However, against the backdrop of rising interest rates, the impact higher borrowing costs have on some high-yield sectors and rampant dividend cutting in the energy sector, 2015 was not the most sanguine year for dividend exchange-traded funds.
“It was a strange year for dividend-focused investors in 2015. Expectations of when the Federal Reserve would end its highly accommodative monetary policy, coupled with some sector specific issues, caused many high-dividend-yielding pockets of the market to decline. Yet, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices, it was the fourth consecutive year of annual record cash payments by S&P 500 companies as dividends rose 10 percent in 2015. Further, some high-yielding companies were acquired. Not surprisingly, the performance of U.S. dividend ETFs varied depending on their holdings,” ...
/www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/01/6116772/dividend-strategies-to-consider-in-2016 alt=Dividend Strategies To Consider In 2016>Full story available on Benzinga.com
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