Dividend Payout Ratio of Utilities Stocks

Over the past few years, many equity investors have looked to dividend yielding stocks to ride out equity market volatility.  The #1 sector that tends to benefit from this behavior is the utilities sector, where individual stocks will often trade based on dividend yield alone.  Along with the dividend yield though, it's important to look at the dividend payout ratio.  All things equal, a company that pays out a higher share of its annual earnings should have a higher dividend yield than a company that retains earnings for growth.

Dividend Payout Ratio of Utilities in the S&P 500