Standard & Poor’s said 97 publicly traded companies decreased their dividend during the second quarter of 2008. This is a nearly five-fold increase from last year’s second quarter. The 97 declines in the quarter is the most since 1990, when 108 issues decreased their dividend.

On a dollar basis, Financials and Consumer Discretionary stocks, had the largest dividend reductions. The Financial sector saw reductions in annual payments by over $13 billion and increases of only $3 billion. Some financial stocks which recently cut their dividends include: Wachovia, Citigroup, Washington Mutual, National City and Fifth Third Bancorp.

Special dividends are much less common these days. Whereas 2007 saw a record year for special dividends - both in number of announcements and total dollars amount - SmartDividend only tracked 12 special dividends so far this year.

Finally, most REIT saw their profit plummet, whipping out some of the largest-yield quarterly dividends in the process.

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