BLOOMBERG: A dozen oil and natural gas companies cut dividends leaving investors in the red.
The cost to shareholders: more than $7.4 billion in lost income, compared to what they would have received this year if the payouts remained the same.
It’s another painful measure — along with tens of thousands of layoffs and more than $100 billion in canceled investments — of the toll taken on the industry by the worst oil and gas price slump in decades. The quarterly payments, prized by conservative shareholders as a source of steady income, are unlikely to be restored any time soon.
