UK Dividend Monitor Q4 2017

December 2017 / Link Group

Investors celebrate record-breaking dividends in 2017, but will feel the hangover in 2018

• A new 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.
• But growth slowed towards the end of the year: Q4 was the slowest quarter all year, up 1.1%.
• Different sectors, different stories: 13 sectors raised their dividends year-on-year, compared to six that saw them fall. Sectors that saw double-digit growth include mining, consumer goods and housebuilding.
• Big payers dominate: The top 15 payers accounted for three fifths of all UK dividends in 2017, with Shell, HSBC and BP taking the top three places for the third year in a row.
• Slower growth in 2018: We forecast underlying dividends to rise 3.1% in 2018, with slower growth caused by a fall in special dividends and absence of growth amongst the top 100 companies.

The Link Asset Services UK Dividend Monitor is a quarterly publication providing comprehensive data, trends and analysis on dividends paid out on the ordinary shares of companies listed on the UK Main Market.

With grateful thanks to Exchange Data International for providing the raw data

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