Payout ratio by yield band: US payers above $1B market cap, latest snapshot on file
Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-08-22, from Dividend Yield Traps: How to Spot One.
| yield_band | payers | median_yield_pct | median_payout_ratio_pct | pct_paying_over_earnings | pct_no_positive_eps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| under 2% | 636 | 0.89 | 21.4 | 3.6 | 9.1 |
| 2-4% | 382 | 2.74 | 49 | 13.7 | 6.5 |
| 4-6% | 143 | 4.65 | 94.3 | 45.6 | 12.6 |
| 6-8% | 53 | 6.63 | 119.8 | 54.8 | 20.8 |
| 8% and up | 56 | 10.96 | 138.2 | 78.7 | 16.1 |
- Rows × columns
- 5 × 6
- Computed
- Completeness
- No missing values
- Source
- US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
- Licence
- Strasmore terms · free, no signup
What each column holds
| Column | Type | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
yield_band |
text | 5 distinct values (2-4%, 4-6%, 6-8%…) | |
payers |
number | 53 to 636 | |
median_yield_pct |
number | 0.89 to 10.96 | percent |
median_payout_ratio_pct |
number | 21.4 to 138.2 | percent |
pct_paying_over_earnings |
number | 3.6 to 78.7 | percent |
pct_no_positive_eps |
number | 6.5 to 20.8 | percent |
Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on , and the query below is what returned them.
the exact SQL behind every number
SELECT multiIf(dividend_yield * 100 >= 8, '8% and up',
dividend_yield * 100 >= 6, '6-8%',
dividend_yield * 100 >= 4, '4-6%',
dividend_yield * 100 >= 2, '2-4%',
'under 2%') AS yield_band,
count() AS payers,
round(quantileDeterministic(0.5)(dividend_yield * 100, cityHash64(ticker)), 2) AS median_yield_pct,
round(quantileDeterministicIf(0.5)(dividend_yield * price / earnings_per_share * 100,
cityHash64(ticker), earnings_per_share > 0), 1) AS median_payout_ratio_pct,
round(100 * countIf(earnings_per_share > 0 AND dividend_yield * price > earnings_per_share)
/ countIf(earnings_per_share > 0), 1) AS pct_paying_over_earnings,
round(100 * countIf(earnings_per_share <= 0) / count(), 1) AS pct_no_positive_eps
FROM global_markets.stocks_ratios
WHERE date = (SELECT max(date) FROM global_markets.stocks_ratios)
AND price >= 5
AND market_cap >= 1000000000
AND dividend_yield > 0
AND earnings_per_share IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY yield_band
HAVING countIf(earnings_per_share > 0) > 0
ORDER BY median_yield_pct
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