Shares of the largest oil companies have slumped so low it suggests investors expect the crash in crude prices to force cuts in dividends. History tells a different story. Oil’s collapse has driven the annual dividend yield at Royal Dutch Shell Plc to at least a 20-year high of 7.7 percent this week, compared with 4.4 percent for the benchmark FTSE 100 Index. The yield — the annual return divided by the share price — is also at a two-decade high at Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. “The market is telling us that investors think the dividend payouts may not be sustainable with oil at this level,” said Ahmed Ben Salem, a Paris-based analyst with Oddo & Cie. “History suggests otherwise. Oil companies are very attached to their dividend policy and if they were to cut it they’d lose a lot of investors.” Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, […]