As the global economy grows and a potential recession seems far off, 2017 is turning into a banner year for dividends, according to a report by London-based Janus Henderson Investors.

In the second quarter of 2017, a quarterly record of $447.5 billion in dividends were paid to investors globally, a 5.4 percent year-over-year increase, according to the Janus Henderson Global Dividend Report for the second quarter.

“People keep talking about whether we’re seeing the top of the market, and how prices and valuations are high,” says Alex Crooke, head of global equity income at Janus Henderson. “Here’s some justification for why markets have marched high. There’s more certainty in the global economy, the global economy is accelerating and the world’s picking itself back up.”

Underlying dividend growth --  or the total increase in dividends adjusted for special dividends, currency changes, timing and index changes -- increased by 7.2 percent in the second quarter, the fastest rate of dividend growth since late 2015.

Crooke says that fewer companies are paying special dividends or engaging in share buybacks, which may point to management teams finding a new equilibrium between rewarding investors with dividends and reinvesting cash back into their operations.

“Capital expenditures are picking back up in Europe and the U.S., and we’re seeing that broadly in the survey through fewer special dividends,” says Crooke. “As investors, we find it encouraging that management is finding opportunities to invest back into their companies.”

Moving forward, growth in the global economy appears more synchronized now than at any time in recent history, says Janus Henderson, which should lead to continued dividend growth in most sectors and geographies. A weaker dollar should boost headline dividend growth moving forward. Janus Henderson forecasts that $1.208 trillion in dividends will be paid in 2017, a 3.9 percent increase from 2016.

According to Janus Henderson, dividends grew across most economic sectors in the second quarter, with financials, technology, industrials and basic materials leading dividend growth. The telecommunications was the only sector of global equity markets to post a year-over-year decline in dividend payouts.

“If you look at the North American market, every sector increased its dividend in the second quarter,” says Crooke. “That’s unusual, normally something falls apart, but the breadth of the growth is quite nice to see and it appears to be happening almost everywhere.”

According to Janus Henderson, U.S. banks made the greatest contribution to dividend growth overall.

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