Dividend Yields of Market Sectors

Different market sectors have different dividend yields (dividend/price). The highest paying sector includes the real estate investment trust (REIT) stocks. These stocks payout most of their earnings in dividends. The lowest yielding stocks come from the technology sector. Most of these companies use their free cash to expand their businesses.

The dividend yield table ranks 10 market sectors by their yield. All the sectors except technology have a higher yield then the 2.05% yield of the S&P 500. Stocks in these high-yield sectors may be good candidates for a dividend reinvestment portfolio.

Dividend Yields of Market Sectors
Sector	Dividend Yield	Sample Stock - Yield
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)	6.49%	Equity Office Properties (EOP) 7.81%
Utilities	4.35%	Duke Energy (DUK) 5.67%
Telecommunications	4.21%	Verizon (VZ) 4.24%
Basic Materials	2.44%	Weyerheuser (WY) 2.75%
Financials	2.43%	Citigroup (C) 3.5%
Consumer Cyclical	2.40%	Ford (F) 2.72%
Energy	2.36%	ExxonMobil (XOM) 2.5%
Conglomerates	2.36%	General Electric (GE) 2.65%
Consumer Non Cyclical	2.34%	Coca-Cola (KO) 2%
Information Technology	0.77%	International Business Machines (IBM) 0.83%
S&P 500	2.05%	374 of 500 S&P 500 stocks pay dividends.
Note: All yield data as of May 14, 2004

To find more yield data about sectors, industries and stocks go to Industry Browser - Sector List at Yahoo! Finance.