Global corporations have handed out record-breaking dividends to their shareholders.
In the first three months of this year, companies around the globe dished out more dividends than they ever have before. This information was revealed by investment company Janus Henderson on Thursday. The top 1,200 public firms dished out a staggering $339.2 billion (approximately €313 billion) to their investors between January and March. Two key players, online behemoths Alibaba and Meta, were largely responsible for this surge.
Dividends went up by 2.4% compared to the same period last year. The banking sector played a significant role in this, according to Janus Henderson. However, the transportation sector stood out as a sharp exception. This was due to massive dividend cuts made by Danish logistics company Maersk.
For the first time ever, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, along with the Chinese tech giant Alibaba, doled out portions of their profits to their investors. Alibaba's contribution of $2.6 billion and Meta's payout of $1.1 billion were said to be primarily responsible for the increase in the first quarter.
Investors have certainly had a fantastic start to 2024, according to Janus Henderson's Ben Lofthouse and Jane Shoemake. Share prices have risen, and momentum from the end of 2023 has continued.
More than half of the dividends (180 billion dollars) were distributed in the United States, setting a new quarterly record. In Europe, however, the payouts plummeted significantly. But keep in mind that the first quarter is usually a weaker quarter there, as many companies pay out their dividends for the entire year in the second quarter.
Last year in Germany, the largest listed firms also set a new record in dividend payouts to their shareholders. As reported by EY in mid-April, the 40 DAX companies managed to pay out 2.4% more in dividends compared to the previous year, which amounted to a total of €53.8 billion.
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Source: www.ntv.de
