Two in three US-listed companies pay no dividend, a census of SEC filings finds

Even among utilities, the classic income sector, only one in five dividend payers covers the payout from free cash flow

ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, Nov. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Most US-listed companies do not pay a dividend. A census of the SEC filings of 4,631 US-listed companies by Intrinsiqq, a free stock research site, finds that only 35.2% pay one, as of October 16, 2026. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and Tesla are among the companies that pay none.

Income investors tend to look to utilities. 69.2% of utilities pay a dividend, more than any other sector, and 52.6% of those payers have raised it for at least ten years in a row. Yet only 20.3% of utility payers (15 of 74) generate enough free cash flow to cover the dividend. Across all dividend payers outside banks, insurers and REITs, 76.5% do. A dividend that free cash flow does not cover is paid from the balance sheet or from new borrowing. Oracle, too, pays a dividend its free cash flow does not cover.

Other findings:

• Nearly half of US-listed companies (46.7%) did not make a profit over the past year.
• In healthcare, a sector with many drug developers still in the research stage, 7.3% pay a dividend and 24.9% are profitable.
• In the S&P 500 the share is 81.3%, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices (Q4 2025). S&P counts share issues rather than companies.
  
  

"I wanted to know how many companies pay a dividend across the whole US market, not just in the S&P 500," said Philip van den Berge, founder of Intrinsiqq. "Two in three pay nothing at all. The utilities surprised me most. They raise their dividends year after year, but four in five of them don't have the cash left over after investing to cover it."

A company is counted in a figure only when every number behind it matched its own SEC filing. Free cash flow is operating cash flow minus capital expenditure.

The figures, sector tables and charts are free to republish under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, with CSV downloads: intrinsiqq.com/statistics/dividends

About Intrinsiqq

Intrinsiqq is a stock research workstation for do-it-yourself investors. It turns SEC filings into scores, valuations and charts that anyone can check, covering more than 10,000 stocks. Basic stock analysis is free at intrinsiqq.com.

Media contact: Philip van den Berge, Founder, Intrinsiqq, philip@intrinsiqq.com