New records for dividends, up over 5% year-on-year in Q3

Global dividend payouts increased 5.1% ($30 billion) year-over-year to $583 billion in the third quarter of 2024 while the 12-month distributions even increased by 7.5% to $2.1trn by the end of September.

In a briefing note, Viktor Nossek, head of investment & product analytics, Vanguard Europe said: “Third-quarter payout growth of $30 billion year-over-year was supported by China and North America (10% and 9%, respectively), while companies from other regions made only minor contributions, reducing global payout growth by $2 billion to $28 billion year-over-year.

"Consumer goods stocks drove China's strong result. Technology, telecommunications and healthcare contributed $7.3 billion, half of the growth in North America.”

“Taiwanese equities led the cuts in third-quarter distributions that affected technology and industrial companies in emerging markets outside China ($4.8 billion and $6.6 billion year-on-year, respectively). The reductions in distributions otherwise exceeded high distributions of some leading stocks in the region. Without the strong contributions of U.S. stocks, the technology industry would have been one of the biggest industries to cut dividends.

“China's large state-owned enterprises dominated in the third quarter and were in the top 20 largest dollar distributions thanks to large annual distributions from Chinese banks and oil giants. Outside the financials and energy sectors, special dividends in China's consumer sector stand out, complementing the regular quarterly dividend. The regional share of emerging markets (including China) in global distributions was largest in the third quarter, contributing $294 billion, or 50%, to total distributions over the period.”

He further said: “With Japan and emerging markets outside China set to dominate dividend payments in the fourth quarter, the focus will be on the impact of the yen's sharp depreciation on dollar distributions on Japanese equities and how well the consumer goods, industrials and materials sectors are coping with China's ongoing domestic woes.”