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Domestic feel to FTSE 100 dividend windfall in November

Some of the UK’s largest companies will pay out billions of pounds in dividends in the month ahead. City writer Graeme Evans reveals who’s paying what and when.

29th October 2024 14:05

by Graeme Evans from interactive investor

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A sack of money with a pair of golden binoculars

Bigger payouts by Centrica (LSE:CNA) and Tesco (LSE:TSCO) and the latest dividend of high-yielding Taylor Wimpey (LSE:TW.) will ensure shareholders benefit from an improving UK economy in November.

Their distributions and others planned by Persimmon (LSE:PSN), Barratt Redrow (LSE:BTRW) and Kingfisher (LSE:KGF) will give a domestic feel to the 15-strong schedule of FTSE 100 dividend payments due in the month.

The biggest award of all comes on Friday when British American Tobacco (LSE:BATS) hands over £1.3 billion in the third leg of its plan to pay 55.88p a share every quarter up until next February.

Having registered the fifth-highest amount in Computershare’s UK dividend rankings for the third quarter, the income stock accounts for more than half of November’s £2.45 billion total.

The next biggest is £289 million from Tesco on 22 November, a figure up £16 million on a year earlier after the supermarket hiked the interim dividend by 10.4% to 4.25p a share.

The chain, whose policy is to pay 35% of the prior full-year dividend, lifted operating profits by 13% in April’s annual results before posting a further 16% improvement last month.

British Gas business Centrica has increased its interim dividend to 1.5p from 1.33p a share, meaning that £77 million will head to shareholders on 14 November.

It follows July’s full-year dividend of 2.67p as the company rebuilds distributions, having paid as much as 8.4p a share in June 2019 and a bumper 12.08p a share in June 2014.

In the housebuilding sector, Barratt Redrow and Taylor Wimpey have both committed £170 million through payments on 1 November and 15 November respectively.

Taylor Wimpey’s half-year 4.8p a share award is in line with the previous year’s £169 million as part of its policy to return 7.5% of net assets annually.

Its shares yield dividend income of 6.1%, well above the average for a FTSE 100 company but down from 8.8% seen a year ago after a 40% rebound in valuation.

Barratt’s policy of maintaining cover at 1.75 times adjusted earnings per share means its full-year dividend of 11.8p is significantly below the 23.5p of a year ago. That’s reduced its dividend yield to 3.4%, having been 8.3% last year.

The cut in shareholder distributions comes after a smaller order book at the start of the financial year and a lower number of average outlets caused its annual adjusted pre-tax profits to fall by 56.5% to £385 million.

Trading in recent weeks has offered encouragement, while the company has been boosted by this month’s completion of its acquisition of Redrow.

Another former high-yielding housebuilder in November’s diary is Persimmon, having announced its intention to pay an interim dividend of 20p a share.

The distribution on 8 November forms part of its plan to at least maintain the 2023 dividend of 60p per share with a view to growing this over time. The shares yield 3.7%.

Among the other widely held stocks,, B&Q owner Kingfisher (LSE:KGF) is due to pay an unchanged interim dividend of 3.8p a share on 15 November, while Smiths Group (LSE:SMIN) is distributing £104 million through a final dividend of 30.2p a share on 22 November.

Source: interactive investor, SharePad. Data and dividend conversions to sterling from dollars at exchange rate on 28 October 2024.

These articles are provided for information purposes only.  Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties.  The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

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