According to fund manager data, companies paid dividends worth $339.2 billion in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 2.4 percent from the previous year. A large portion of this amount, $301 billion, went to the 1,200 largest listed companies in the world.
Based on regions, companies paid the most dividends in North America, $180 billion, up 7.5 percent from last year. Dividends paid in emerging markets were $30 billion (+20.6%), in Europe (excluding the UK) $49.4 billion (-20.3%), in Japan $4.8 billion (-6.4%), and in the Asia-Pacific region (Except Japan). It amounted to $21.5 billion (+5.7%), and in the United Kingdom it amounted to $15.3 billion (+6.8%).
Most of the dividends, $164.3 billion, were paid by US companies, and this amount is also a record and was 7 percent higher than in the first quarter of last year. Among the US companies that paid the most dividends were Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Chevron Corp., Johnson & Johnson, and Verizon Communications. In addition, Costco Wholesale paid a special dividend totaling about $6.7 billion ($15 per share) in January, on top of its regular payments.
The two giant European pharmaceutical companies, Novartis and Roche, became the world's largest dividend payers in the January-March period, amounting to $8.6 billion and $7.6 billion, respectively. Costco Wholesale, Microsoft, BHP Group, Siemens AG, Exxon Mobil, Apple, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Novo Nordisk made the top 10 companies. Their total payments amounted to $52.1 billion, 15% of the global total.
Chinese company Alibaba made its debut on Janus Henderson's list, whose profits of $2.6 billion were enough for 20th place.
According to Janus Henderson experts, the total dividends paid in the world this year will rise by 5 percent to reach a record level of $1,720 billion.
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This article does not constitute investment advice or an investment recommendation. Detailed legal information
