Pressure is building for higher dividends as U.S. companies from Google Inc. to Valero Energy Corp. sit on record cash stockpiles and payouts remain at three-year lows.
Standard & Poor's 500 Index companies paid 27 percent of earnings in dividends in the second quarter, down from 30 percent in 2008 and below a 30-year average of 41 percent, according to Wells Fargo & Co. Company cash, equivalents and short-term marketable securities jumped 63 percent to $2.77 trillion in the same period, according to Bloomberg data.
"Companies are hoarding a lot of cash and they're getting a very low return for it," said Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., which manages $1.6 billion. "That's all the more reason for them to pay bigger dividends."
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