The FTSE 100 stocks paying an extra £1bn of dividends in July

National Grid, GSK (LSE:GSK) and some of the high-yielding stocks of the property sector including British Land Co (LSE:BLND) are among 26 companies due to hand over £6.3 billion to shareholders in July.

A mix of FTSE 100 promotions and ICG (LSE:ICG) and Vodafone Group (LSE:VOD) both bringing their payments forward slightly from August last year, mean an extra seven companies pay out in July 2026 compared with 2025.

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The FTSE 100 dividend haul, which compares with the previous year’s £5 billion, is driven by the inflation-linked £1.6 billion on offer from energy company National Grid (LSE:NG.) on 23 July.

The planned payout of 32.14p a share is part of 3.8% growth in the total for 2025-26 to 48.49p.

Under its financial framework, National Grid benchmarks the dividend against the increase in average annual CPI plus housing costs. This has resulted in a 145% total shareholder return over the past decade, compared with 143% for the FTSE 100 over the same period.

National Grid noted recently that it had £17 billion of distributable reserves, which is sufficient to cover more than five years of forecast group dividends.

A scrip dividend alternative has again been offered in respect of the 2025-26 final payout.

The company’s scrip dividend scheme allows shareholders to elect to receive their dividend as additional ordinary shares, with no stamp duty or commission to pay. The average uptake of the scrip dividend is usually about 25%.

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The option to take shares instead of cash dividends is most commonly used among companies in the utilities, property and financial sectors. The election date for National Grid’s 2025-26 final dividend was 18 June.

The GSK dividend on 9 July relates to the first-quarter award of 17p a share, which is worth £681 million and is up from 16p a year earlier.

Chief executive Luke Miels recently reiterated GSK’s pledge to pay an improved total of 70p a share for 2026, having pointed out that funding for June’s proposed $10.9 billion (£8.2 billion) acquisition of Nuvalent will come from debt facilities and existing cash resources.

The third-largest distribution of the month is by private equity group 3i Group Ord (LSE:III), which intends to pay a dividend of 48p worth £484 million - up from last year’s 42.5p.

The payment on 24 July will mean that 3i has distributed a total of £5.4 billion to shareholders in dividends since its restructuring was announced in June 2012, with a compound annual growth rate of 18% over this period.

The Vodafone dividend per share of 2.3625 eurocents a share is the next largest at about £470 million. This will be paid on 30 July, with UK-based shareholders set to find out the conversion to sterling on 23 July.

The award compares with five years of 4.5 eurocents between 2020 and 2025 and 10.23 eurocents or the equivalent of 9.9p a share as recently as August 2018.

Vodafone’s capital allocation framework, which was overhauled following a wide-ranging restructuring, has reduced the yield to 3.8% from above 11% when the old payout level was not fully covered by earnings.

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The biggest-yielding stock in July’s dividend calendar is the 6.6% of urban logistics-focused LondonMetric Property (LSE:LMP), which is due to pay a fourth quarter 3.3p a share on 9 July.

The REIT has increased its dividend per share for 11 years running, including by 3.8% to 12.45p for the 2025-26 year. This followed a 2.4% increase in earnings per share (EPS) to 13.5p, meaning a 246% jump from 3.9p at the time of the company’s formation in 2013.

The dividend growth is set to continue as LondonMetric is guiding to a 3.3% increase in its first quarterly dividend for 2026-27 to 3.15p.

Chief executive Andrew Jones recently said the company was a step closer to its ambition of “dividend aristocracy” - representing 25 consecutive years of growth.

He added: “We are grounded in the belief that income compounding is one of the true wonders of investing – the essential ingredient and rocket fuel of long-term wealth creation.”

Elsewhere in the sector, the Bluewater and Piccadilly Lights owner Land Securities Group (LSE:LAND) yields dividend income of 6.3% as it prepares to distribute a full-year award of 22.2p a share worth £165 million on 24 July.

On the same day, the 5.5% yielding British Land is distributing 10.8p a share or £111 million. With a policy of setting the dividend at 80% of underlying EPS, the retail and London campuses owner increased the total for the year by 1% to 23.12p.

Other big yields include the 5.5% of housebuilder Persimmon (LSE:PSN), which is paying an unchanged dividend of 40p a share worth £128 million on 10 July.

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One of the smaller yielding stocks of the dividend month is the 1.1% of Marks & Spencer Group (LSE:MKS), which is due to pay £62 million through a full-year award of 3p a share on 10 July. That lifted the total for the year by 16.7% to 4.2p.

The size of the dividend was one line of questioning at last July’s AGM, when a shareholder compared the total award of 3.6p a share with a pre-Covid level of 18.7p and adjusted earnings per share for the 2024-25 year of 31.9p.

They said: “How did you conclude 3.6p was the right level of dividend for the year, and when can we expect dividends to return to pre-Covid levels?”

The board replied that its goal is to maximise total shareholder returns through strong growth in the share price as well as the dividend.

It added: “Our key investment programmes are an important part of how we deliver growth and higher profitability, which in turn will mean our earnings multiple will increase and our rating will increase, delivering more sustainable growth and a higher-yielding return for shareholders.”

Other companies in July’s dividend calendar include ICG, which is the global alternative asset manager previously known as Intermediate Capital Group.

It holds a 16-year record of dividend growth, which over that time has grown at an annualised rate of 11%. This includes a 5% rise to 87p a share for the 2025-26 financial year, with the latest full-year award of 59.3p a share due on 31 July worth £167 million.

Over the long term, ICG has said it intends to increase the dividend per share by at least mid-single digit percentage points on an annualised basis.

Source: interactive investor, ShareScope. Data and dividend conversions to sterling from dollars/euros at exchange rates correct on 24 June 2026.