A windfall for meta investors
Top companies pay out record dividends
23.05.2024, 15:49
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Good news for investors: The world’s largest companies paid out a record amount in the first quarter. Meta and Alibaba play a significant role in this. But there is also a downward outlier.
Companies around the world paid their investors higher dividends than ever before in the first quarter of this year. According to the investment company Janus Henderson, the 1,200 largest listed companies paid their shareholders a record sum of 339.2 billion dollars (almost 313 billion euros) between January and March. The online giants Alibaba and Meta had a major influence on this.
Compared to the same quarter last year, dividends rose by 2.4 percent, with the banking sector in particular contributing, according to Janus Henderson. The transport sector, however, stood out as an outlier: less was paid out there than in the previous year. This is due to major dividend cuts at the Danish logistics company Maersk.
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, and the Chinese technology group Alibaba, on the other hand, paid out parts of their profits to investors for the first time ever. Alibaba’s $2.6 billion and Meta’s $1.1 billion were said to account for half of the increase in the first quarter.
USA sets quarterly record
“Investors have had a good start to 2024 with rising share prices and dividend growth that maintains year-end momentum,” said Ben Lofthouse and Jane Shoemake from fund house Janus Henderson.
More than half of the dividends ($180 billion) went to the USA, setting a quarterly record. In Europe, however, payouts fell significantly. However, the first quarter there is traditionally a weaker one, as many companies pay out their dividends for the entire year in the second quarter.
Last year, however, the largest German listed companies paid their investors a record amount. As the consulting firm EY announced in mid-April, the 40 DAX companies paid out 2.4 percent more dividends than in the previous year, which amounted to a total of 53.8 billion euros.