The Dividend Yield On The S&P 500 Is Now At 50-Year Lows. Here's The Biggest Problem.

The Wealth Advisor Contributor
April 7, 2026

(Yahoo! Finance) - Can we get a dividend check in here, Big Tech?

The dividend yield on the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is nearing 50-year lows at a paltry 1.24%, Trivariate Research founder Adam Parker pointed out in a new note on Tuesday. The only lower moment for dividend yields dates back to the tech bubble trough, when it stood at 1.09% (chart below).

Over the last 100 years, the S&P 500 has averaged roughly a 10% annual return, with approximately 30% of that coming from dividends, Parker said.

Dividends

Blame Big Tech.

"The percentage of companies with a dividend sits at 56.5%, not meaningfully different from the last 25 years. Hence, it is clearly the largest companies by market cap having low / no dividends that are driving this current regime," Parker said.

Big Tech names — which have dominated the composition of the S&P 500 — notoriously pay no dividends or minimal ones. The thinking here is that behemoths such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) are perpetually in high-earnings-growth mode, rewarding investors with higher stock price returns.

So there's no need to send a dividend check to investors. Instead, they can reinvest the cash into the business or stock buybacks.

Dividends

Where dividend yields stand among the "Magnificent Seven," per Yahoo Finance data:

  1. Tesla (TSLA): 0%

  2. Amazon (AMZN): 0%

  3. Nvidia (NVDA): 0.02%

  4. Microsoft (MSFT): 0.16%

  5. Alphabet (GOOGL): 0.27%

  6. Meta (META): 0.33%

  7. Apple (AAPL): 1.16%

But perhaps it's time for Big Tech boards to consider dividends, as earnings growth has slowed and investors fret about enormous cash flow being spent to build out AI infrastructure. Paying out dividends could be a sign of confidence in these longer-term investments, a welcome sign in the current environment.

The Magnificent Seven stocks are hovering around fresh lows relative to the S&P 500, JPMorgan strategist Mislav Matejka wrote in a note today.

"Mag 7 relative [to S&P 500] is not acting as a safe haven," Matejka said.

As of early April 2026, the Magnificent Seven giants have collectively lost $1.1 trillion in market cap this year.

By Brian Sozzi - Executive Editor

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