Shareholders are poised to be paid more than $22 billion in dividends from March to July after a bumper corporate profit season, according to CommSec research.

The figure is up from dividend payouts during the same time last year, which CommSec said totalled about $19 billion.

The chief economist and head of investment strategy at AMP Capital, Shane Oliver, said the strong profit growth is going to result in "strong dividend growth".

"For mining companies, the focus is going to be on dividends [after strong investment during the mining boom], returns to capital shareholders where they can," he said.

"For industrials, I kind of think over the next 12-18 months you will see a bit more focus on investment."

CommSec's chief economist Craig James agrees that shareholders will reap some of the rewards from a positive corporate reporting season.

"The bottom line is that Australian companies are in good shape - they're reporting profits and determining they want to reward shareholders," Mr James said.

According to Shane Oliver, decent dividends will support consumer spending.

"A portion of the dividend payment no doubt will be saved, some of the money will no doubt be invested in the share market, but a significant proportion of it will be spent," he said.

"I think there is no doubt that dividend income is something that Australians have become increasingly reliant on.

"The Australian share market is one share market that pays pretty good dividends, at the moment the dividend yield on shares is about 4.5 per cent and, including the franking credit, its pushing up to 6 per cent.

"There's very few share markets around the world that pay such high dividends and there's no doubt that does support spending in the economy, particularly in an environment where bank deposit rates are so low ... around 2.5 per cent depending on the deal you've got."

Mr James, however, has raised concerns that dividends are being paid out instead of money being reinvested into business operations.

He said 88 per cent of ASX-listed companies have opted for paying a dividend, rather than using the money to reinvest.

"I think there is still concern about embracing growth in the current environment," Mr James explained.

"I suppose we get back to the GFC [global financial crisis] and, when you look at consumers and businesses around the globe, there is still a reluctance to embrace operations of putting money back into business, trying to grow your business."

However, Mr Oliver contends that the outlook for the next year is much more optimistic for businesses.

"Investment outside the mining sector in Australia has been lacking but, as the economic outlook becomes a bit more certain, a bit more secure we should start to see a bit more of the focus shifting towards investment as opposed to paying out dividends.

"[But] I don't think companies are going to cut their dividends though, it might just be the case that they will start to slow down the growth rate of dividends compared to the growth rate of profits."