Dividend Monitor PDF - Q4 2017

[Itsallaguess]

Overview -

• Record dividends of £94.4bn were paid in 2017, up 10.5% year-on-year, boosted by large special dividends and rebounding payouts from miners

• Underlying dividends (ex specials) grew 10.4% to £87.7bn, the fastest rate of growth since 2012

• Exchange rate gains of £2.1bn owing to sterling’s 2016 devaluation boosted the annual total, though a stronger pound by year end meant FX losses in Q4

• Q4 growth was the slowest quarter all year, up 1.1%

Yield -

• Prospective equity yield for 2018 is 3.5%, down 0.2 percentage points owing to strong share-price performance

Outlook -

• Stronger global growth is positive for UK dividends, despite UK economic weakness

• Top 100 likely to lag mid-caps owing to lack of growth among very large payers

• Lower special dividends and FX penalties on the stronger pound are likely to have an impact

• We expect underlying growth of 3.1%, to an underlying total of £90.4bn, equivalent to 5.0% on a constant-currency basis

• Headline growth, including specials, is set to be 1.6%, to a grand total of £95.9bn

Full PDF article here - https://tinyurl.com/y7mpv6df

News-page of Link Asset Services - https://tinyurl.com/ydgh66ja

Cheers,

Itsallaguess