Good analysis, Todd. I would love to see the data from 2006 to present as I'm not sure the trend will hold. Low yield / low payout stocks like Apple, Amazon, Google, etc have come to dominate. Also, investors need to be aware that often times the payout ratio given in a screener is incorrect. I just checked FinViz for high yield / low payout stocks and got several 5%+ dividend yield stocks with 0% payout ratio. Obviously that can't be correct, so everyone needs to do their homework!