Last year was a tale of two halves for dividend equities. Owing to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the first half of 2020 was chock full of payout cuts and suspensions by S&P 500 member firms, but dividends rebounded mightily in the second half of the year, indicating that many of the top stocks for 2021 are dividend payers. The fourth-quarter trajectory of S&P 500 payouts indicates that the darkest clouds of the coronavirus cuts have passed. And dividend investors could be in for better things…
