As of December 11, 2012, the dividend yield for the S&P 500 Index equaled 2.27%. The largest contributor to the index's yield is now the technology sector, contributing 14.6% of the index's dividend income. This compares to the technology sector's income contribution at the end of 2011 of 10.29%. The sector experiencing the largest decline in contribution to the index yield is the consumer staples sector, declining from 15.6% in 2011 to 14.0% as of the close on 12/11/2012.
From The Blog of HORAN Capital Advisors
Given the technology sector's weighting in the index at 18.9%, and the popularity of dividends, it is not surprising that technology stocks are a significant contributor to the income yield for the index in spite of the tech sector having the second lowest yield at 1.74%. Additionally, the index is cap weighted and three of the top 10 index stocks are technology ones, Apple (2.1% yield), IBM (1.8% yield) and Microsoft (3.4% yield). These three stocks account for nearly 40% of the weighting of the stocks in the technology sector.
From The Blog of HORAN Capital Advisors
Data Source: Standard & Poor's
