UK dividends jump in the final financial quarter of 2025
UK dividends rose in the final quarter of 2025, lifted by better than anticipated payouts across a range of sectors.
Dividends jumped 1.3 per cent on a headline basis to £14.3bn, according to the latest dividend monitor figures from financial services company Computershare.
Regular dividends, excluding one-off special payments, rose to £13.9bn, up 2.1 per cent on a constant currency basis, with the quarter also being the lone period to see an increase.
The report credited the bump to better payouts from the energy, consumer basics and property sectors than were initially anticipated, coupled with a boost from companies that were promoted from London’s AIM market.
This included gold mining group Pan African Resources and GB Group which both entered the FTSE 250 in October.
Meanwhile, a late surge in volatile special dividends notably from Sainsbury’s and Admiral also led to an uptick in distributions at the tail end of the year.
Full year results beat forecast
Despite the jump in the fourth quarter 2025’s headline payouts shrunk 0.9 per cent to £87.5bn, marginally beating Computershare’s initial forecast of £87.2bn.
Cuts in the mining and telecoms sector, including Vodafone, also masked better results for the wider dividend market, with the median increase at company level standing at 3.7 per cent.
Mark Cleland, chief executive officer of Issuer Services UK at Computershare, said: “Dividend payouts have still not regained pre-pandemic highs, and the slow dividend growth we’ve seen since 2020 largely continued last year.
“Rates did improve as 2025 progressed – and might well have been higher although many companies used significant sums of capital to undertake share buyback programmes.”
Sectors leading the charge
While energy and consumer goods boosted the fourth quarter performance, industrial goods made “by far the most positive contribution to growth”, mainly due to Rolls Royce making its dividend return after a four year absence.
BAE systems also upped its dividend, due to the buoyant aerospace and defence markets, while banks, insurers and financial services increased their dividends by £1.2bn.
Meanwhile, house builders and the consumer sector saw reductions from Burberry and Bellway.
Share buybacks and 2026 outlook
Share buybacks also jumped, reaching £63.3bn last year, up from the £30.8bn posted in 2019.
Buybacks in 2025 were worth 73p for every £1 in dividends compared to just 30p six years ago, with the increase in buybacks reducing annual dividend growth by around three percentage points.
Computershare expects total dividends to inch up 1.5 per cent in 2026 to £88.8bn, while regular dividends are anticipated to rise 2.0 per cent.
Cleland said: “There are no clear indications that dividends will grow much faster in 2026, but a median dividend growth of 3.7 per cent suggests a healthier market trend than the outlying figures suggest.”