Domestic feel to FTSE 100 dividend windfall in November

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.