S&P 500 Index companies paid out a record high $104.01 billion in cash dividends in Q2'17. 

It marked the 3rd consecutive quarter in which cash dividend distributions exceeded $100.00 billion. Over the past 39 quarters through Q2'17, the average quarterly dividend payout was $73.90 billion.

The low point in the chart was the $47.21 billion paid out in Q3'09, the first quarter of the current economic expansion. From Q3'09 to Q2'17, the index's quarterly dividend payout more than doubled (+120.31%).

For the 12-month period ended 6/30/17, S&P 500 Index companies paid out $407.12 billion in cash dividends, up 4.54% from the $389.43 billion distributed over the same period through 6/30/16, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The steady rise in dividend distributions throughout the current economic recovery suggests that Corporate America is still on solid footing, in our opinion.

As of 9/14/17, four sectors contributed 52.66% of the S&P 500 Index's dividend payout. Here was the breakdown: 15.75% (Information Technology); 13.36% (Financials); 11.82% (Health Care); and 11.73% (Consumer Staples), according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

S&P 500 Industrials (Old), defined as the S&P 500 minus Financials, Utilities and Transportation companies, had cash and equivalent holdings totaling an all-time high of $1.53 trillion in Q2'17, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Investors should be encouraged by the fact that companies are not only distributing billions of dollars more each quarter to shareholders via dividends, but appear to have the wherewithal to keep this trend going, in our opinion.