>The disappearance of dividend dollars has become the rule rather than the exception on Wall Street.
According to Standard & Poor’s the second quarter was the worst for dividend investors in the last 18 years: more than $14 billion of dividends have evaporated this year as 20 financial firms in the S&P 500 Index have slashed their payouts.
Fannie Mae is the most recent casualty for dividend investors. On Friday, the troubled mortgage lender cut its dividend from 35 cents a share to 5 cents.
Many of these companies boasted high dividend yields, in some cases well over 7%. Josh Peters, editor of the Morningstar Dividend Investor, notes that when the dividend yield tips above 7% investors need to be cautious because the risk of cuts grows.
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