Meta, T-Mobile and Disney Boosted US Dividend Growth in First Quarter

Dividend growth accelerated in the first quarter to a record $164.3 billion, propelled by distributions from companies such as Meta (META), Walt Disney & Co. (DIS), and T-Mobile (TMUS), according to a recent Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index report. And that’s not including any special or one-time payout announcements.

If you take into account events such as Costco’s (COST) distribution of profits from strong quarterly sales to shareholders, and Ford Motor’s (F) one-off 18 cents boost to shareholders in Q1, first quarter dividends grew by almost 7.9%.

Dividend Growth Drivers

While 97% of U.S. companies increased their dividend payments, or held them steady in the first quarter, according to Janus Henderson, a few companies led the charge for dividend growth.

Meta was the biggest contributor to the overall number with its first-ever dividend. The company paid out $1.1 billion per quarter, which was only a fifth of its share repurchase program, but enough to add two-thirds of a percentage point to U.S. dividend growth for the quarter.

Communications firm T-Mobile also made a first-ever dividend payment in December and followed it with another in Q1, adding to roughly half a percentage point to the quarterly growth. Walt Disney & Co. finally bounced back from its pandemic malaise with a return to dividend payments in Q1, helped by a surprise profit in its streaming division.

Novartis (NVS), Microsoft (MSFT), Costco, Apple (AAPL) and Novo Nodisk (NVO) feature among the world’s biggest dividend paying companies for the first quarter of the year.