Companies paid a record $544.8 billion in dividends in the second quarter

The volume of dividends paid by companies in the second quarter of this year reached $544.8 billion, follows from Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index. This is a record quarterly figure for the entire existence of the index. Compared to the previous quarter, global payouts increased by 11.3%.

The most generous of all were financial companies and banks. This quarter, the volume of their payments reached almost $140 billion, which is 15.7% higher than in the first quarter of this year. The largest quarterly growth in dividends was demonstrated by oil and gas and energy companies. They paid out about $45 billion to shareholders, up 88% from the first quarter. This is due to a significant increase in oil prices, which helped oil producers increase the amount of free cash they are willing to share with shareholders.

The largest volume of payments among regions is observed in Europe and North America — $165.8 billion and $158.6 billion respectively. At the same time, British companies paid almost $36 billion in dividends this quarter, which is a third more than in the first quarter. The growth in payouts in the United States was below the world average – 8.3%, which, however, did not prevent American companies from setting another quarterly payout record – $144.4 billion.

As for Russia, companies here, according to Janus Henderson, began to refuse to pay dividends. As a result, in the second quarter, Russian business paid out $3.3 billion to shareholders, which is almost three times less than in the first quarter of the year.

Kirill Sarkhanyants