Lloyds Bank and NatWest among FTSE 100 mega-dividend payouts in May

Some of the country’s biggest dividends are paid over the next month, demonstrating just how much income is on offer for investors in UK Plc. Here are 23 FTSE 100 firms.

A bumper £8.4 billion of blue-chip dividends are set to be paid in May, with shareholders of Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) and NatWest Group (LSE:NWG) pocketing more than a fifth of this total.

Aviva (LSE:AV.), British American Tobacco (LSE:BATS) and Reckitt Benckiser (LSE:RKT) are among the other notable payers in a month when 23 companies in the FTSE 100 index are due to make distributions.

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This month’s list is a reminder that despite heightened market uncertainty there are still plenty of solid companies paying some very attractive dividends. The awards also provide a timely chance to reinvest the proceeds or offset current high living costs.

The haul for May takes the total handed out by FTSE 100 companies in the first four articles of our dividend series to almost £30 billion, with the next month being among the best yet.

HM Treasury and other NatWest shareholders won’t have long to wait for the lender’s full-year dividend of 10p a share, which is due to be in accounts on Tuesday.

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The payment is worth £954 million, which compares with £1.06 billion from fellow UK-based lender Lloyds when it hands out 1.6p a share on 23 May.

May’s biggest distribution is by tobacco giant BAT, which is paying £1.29 billion on Wednesday in the first quarterly payment of 57.72p a share to flow from February’s annual results.

This puts BAT on a forward dividend yield of 8.1%, a level only eclipsed among the 23 FTSE 100 companies due to pay dividends in May by the 9.1% of Phoenix Group Holdings (LSE:PHNX). The savings and retirement business is due to hand out 26p a share worth £260 million on 10 May.

In total, the 10 top yielders from May’s crop of blue-chip dividend payers generate £5 billion of income for shareholders over the month.

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They include Aviva, with the 7.8% yielding insurer committed to paying 20.7p a share or £575 million on 18 May. Housebuilders Persimmon (LSE:PSN), Taylor Wimpey (LSE:TW.) and Barratt Developments (LSE:BDEV), whose yields range from 5% to 7.4%, account for £460 million when they make payments on 5 May, 12 May and 18 May respectively.

The top 10 largest payers overall in May are due to distribute £6.6 billion to shareholders, with one of the biggest being the £611 million from building supplies firm CRH (LSE:CRH).

Its full-year dividend award for payment on 4 May converts in sterling to 82.67p, an increase of 5% on a year earlier as part of a progressive dividend policy.

But this income stream might not be around much longer for FTSE 100 investors as CRH pursues a plan for a primary listing in the US where 75% of its earnings are generated. A shareholder vote on the switch takes place on 8 June.

Source: interactive investor, SharePad. *Current yield