S&P 500 shareholder yield: 2.57%
S&P 500 companies returned $1.79T to shareholders over the last twelve months — $1.06T buying back their own stock and $728B in dividends. Against their combined $69.77T of market value that is a 1.52% buyback yield and a 1.04% dividend yield: 2.57% of cash returned in total. Buybacks are the larger half, which is why the dividend yield alone understates what owners actually receive.
Cash returned by fiscal year#
Dollars, not yields — a yield series would need each year's market value, and re-rating would then drive the line as much as company behaviour does. Dividends sit on the bottom because they are the sticky leg; the buyback band on top is the one that moves.
| Fiscal year | Buybacks | Dividends | Total returned | Net income | Payout ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $943B | $689B | $1.63T | $2.08T | 78% |
| FY2024 | $855B | $649B | $1.50T | $1.87T | 80% |
| FY2023 | $789B | $609B | $1.40T | $1.74T | 81% |
| FY2022 | $927B | $575B | $1.50T | $1.58T | 95% |
| FY2021 | $750B | $527B | $1.28T | $1.75T | 73% |
| FY2020 | $496B | $494B | $990B | $825B | 120% |
| FY2019 | $724B | $493B | $1.22T | $1.22T | 100% |
| FY2018 | $713B | $455B | $1.17T | $1.11T | 105% |
| FY2017 | $482B | $436B | $917B | $1.01T | 91% |
| FY2016 | $475B | $399B | $874B | $864B | 101% |
| FY2015 | $477B | $367B | $843B | $792B | 106% |
| FY2014 | $485B | $332B | $817B | $874B | 93% |
Summed over today's members by the calendar year of each company's fiscal year-end, as filed. Payout ratio is buybacks plus dividends over net income — above 100% means members returned more than they earned that year, funded from cash or borrowing. Composition changes as membership does, so the earliest years cover slightly fewer companies.
FAQ#
- What is the S&P 500's shareholder yield?
- About 2.57% — a 1.52% buyback yield plus a 1.04% dividend yield, from 488 members' trailing-twelve-month SEC cash-flow filings against their combined $69.77T market value. Netting off the $107B those companies raised issuing shares takes it to 2.41%.
- Do S&P 500 companies buy back more stock than they pay in dividends?
- Yes, and by a widening margin. In FY2025 members spent $943B on repurchases against $689B in dividends. The exception is a downturn, because buybacks are discretionary and get cut first: in FY2020 they fell from $724B to $496B, roughly level with that year's $494B of dividends, while dividends held at $494B. Boards will suspend a repurchase long before they will cut a payout.
- Why not just look at the dividend yield?
- Because it now describes a minority of the cash. A company repurchasing 3% of its shares has returned cash as surely as one paying a 3% dividend, but only the second shows up in a yield figure — which is why the S&P 500's 1.04% dividend yield looks so meagre against its own history while total cash returned does not.
Notes & related#
Figures come from members' own SEC cash-flow statements (488 of 498 members with a market value), summed and divided by their combined market capitalisation — the cash definition of shareholder yield, which is what index providers publish. Elsewhere on this site we use a different one. Per-company pages and the shareholder yield list report a realized yield — the shares a company actually retired — because cash over market value flatters a business whose stock fell after it spent the money. That objection doesn't carry to an index aggregate, where no single member's re-rating moves the total and per-member share counts are muddied by index turnover and takeovers. Different question, different convention.
Buyback figures are gross repurchases; the “net of issuance” card subtracts cash raised issuing shares, which is not the same as offsetting stock compensation. See also dividend yield. Not investment advice.
More on S&P 500
- P/E ratio26.0
- Shiller P/E (CAPE)39.4
- Valuation bands26.0×
- Dividend yield1.08%
- Buyback yield1.52%
- Companies & weights500
- Stock performance500
- Sector performance+44.9%
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