- ORIGINAL NEWS
Shareholder payouts hit a record $1.7 trillion last year as bank profits surged
- SUMMARY
Global dividends surged to a record $1.66 trillion in 2023, surging by 5% from the previous year.
This boom was driven by banks, which benefited from rising interest rates and delivered record payouts.
Major banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo boosted their dividends, and even HSBC restored its pandemic-affected payouts.
However, the banking sector’s growth was somewhat offset by large dividend cuts from major companies such as BHP, Petrobras, and Intel.
These cuts masked significant underlying growth in other areas of the market.
In fact, an impressive 86% of listed companies globally either increased or maintained their current dividend levels.
Countries like the US, France, Germany, and Canada saw record payouts.
Europe, in particular, emerged as a major engine of growth, with underlying payouts rising over 10% year-on-year.
For 2024, Janus Henderson projects another 5% growth in total dividends, reaching an estimated $1.72 trillion.
This growth will continue to be driven by a broad-based recovery in many global markets.
- NEWS SENTIMENT CHECK
- Overall sentiment:
positive
Positive
“Global dividend payouts to shareholders hit a record $1.66 trillion in 2023, according to a new report by British asset manager Janus Henderson.”
“Around 86% of listed companies around the world either increased dividends or maintained them at current levels in 2023, Janus Henderson said.”
Negative
“However, the positive impact from banking dividends was “almost entirely offset by cuts from the mining sector,” according to Janus Henderson.”
“The report noted that large dividend cuts by some major companies such as BHP, Petrobras, Rio Tinto, Intel and AT&T diluted the global underlying growth rate for the year by two percentage points, masking significant broad-based growth in many parts of the world.”