S&P 500 Earnings Yield - Monthly

Chart Description

This chart shows the earnings yield for the entire S&P 500 index. The earnings yield is annual earnings as a percent of stock price. One way to think of earnings yield is the annual percent return on investment a shareholder would get if all earnings were given to shareholders. Of course, if all of the earnings were given to shareholders, the company would not have any money to invest in future growth, which could reduce future earnings. Therefore, companies do not typically give all earnings to the shareholders.

The data in this chart comes from economist Robert Shiller.

Relevant Links

Wikipedia: S&P 500 Index, Earnings Yield

Other Links: Robert Shiller's data

Spreadsheet