S&P 500 Dividend Payers Underperform Non Payers In August

In the month of August, the dividend paying stocks in the S&P 500 Index underperformed the non payers on an average return basis. The payers returned 2.49% versus 3.81% for the non payers. As noted in the table below, the payers underperformed the non payers year to date as well. The payers are maintaining a slight performance edge over the last twelve months. The higher quality Dividend Aristocrats are outperforming the S&P Index as outlined in my earlier post.

Source: Standard & Poor's