Next year could bring better dividends on stocks that cut payouts to weather the financial storm, BusinessWeek.com reported.

On the heels of a 21.4 percent decline in 2009 dividend payouts from companies in the large-cap Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, which was the largest decline since 1938’s 38.6 percent decline, S&P 500 analyst Howard Silverblatt is predicting dividends will rebound in 2010.

S&P companies stopped paying $65.4 billion in dividends during the span from September 2008 to March 2009, and of that amount 68 percent was because of cuts at financial firms. Silverblatt believes that a rebound in dividend payments could occur because many of the companies that used to pay big dividends have already made the large cuts.

But the pace of the comeback is a different story. Silverblatt said that it is going to be a slow return to the previous peak, and estimated it could be 2013 before previous levels are reached.

The S&P 500 current dividend yield is 2.16 percent, which is well below the 3.8 percent yield the index has averaged since 1935. Still, many feel stock yields are more attractive in comparison to low interest rates on many bonds and money market funds.

Also, many banks have paid back federal Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout funds, which makes dividend investors hopeful that they will start raising payouts again.