Shareholders are doing well. Global companies have indeed continued to pay abundant dividends during the second quarter of the year, redistributing the colossal profits of the past year, according to the quarterly report by Janus Henderson published on Wednesday.
With $544.8 billion between April and June paid out in dividends, the 1,200 companies studied by the asset manager on average distributed 11% more money than during the same period last year. past. This is a new record for a second quarter, after an already prosperous start to the year.
This increase comes even though the appreciation of the greenback in recent months has mechanically lowered the value of the amounts paid by companies outside the United States, with all dividends being converted into dollars in the study for to be able to make comparisons. Excluding currency effects and extraordinary payments, growth was 19.1%. It is even close to 30% in Europe and the United Kingdom.
An increase of 6% compared to 2021 expected
Commodities, financial companies and car manufacturers drove this growth. In the top 10 of the most important redistributors, we find the Brazilian oil company Petrobras (1st), the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto (3rd), the German group Mercedes-Benz (5th), but also the French bank BNP Paribas (6th) and the German insurer Allianz (8th). But all companies are affected by the trend: 94% of them have maintained or increased their payments.
With this momentum, Janus Henderson has again revised upwards the estimates for the year 2022, with dividends which they believe should reach 1,560 billion dollars, an increase of almost 6% compared to 2021. to see that, despite the enormous economic disruption caused by the pandemic, global dividends are now higher than the record level they reached before the pandemic,” the report highlights.
But the momentum could run out of steam in the coming months. “The rest of the year is unlikely to see such strong growth. Most of the “easy” gains have now been made, with the post-Covid-19 catch-up almost complete,” said Janus Henderson Global Equity Team Leader Ben Lofthouse.