799 KOSPI Companies Paid Record-High 31.1 Trillion Won in Year-End Dividends Last Year

81.1% of KOSPI Firms Paid Dividends for Over Five Consecutive Years
Finance, Electricity & Gas, and Construction Sectors Lead in Dividend Yields
KOSDAQ Sees Increase in Number and Total Dividends of Payout Companies

Cash dividends returned to shareholders by December-closing companies listed on the Korea Exchange’s main board reached an all-time high last year, according to their annual settlements.

Korea Exchange.

On April 20, the Korea Exchange announced that, based on its analysis of settlement cash dividend performance, dividend yield, and payout ratio for December-closing companies on the main board, the total dividends paid by 799 companies amounted to 31.1 trillion won, a 15.5% increase compared to the previous year. Among all dividend-paying companies, 459 companies (81.1%) have paid dividends for more than five consecutive years.

The average dividend yield for common shares and preferred shares was 2.63% and 3.06%, respectively. Although these figures declined year-on-year due to rising share prices and other factors, they still exceeded the government bond yield (2.43%).

Over the past five years, the sectors with the highest average dividend yields have been finance (3.70%), electricity and gas (3.67%), and construction (3.36%).

Last year, the average dividend payout ratio among dividend-paying companies was 39.83%, up by 5.09 percentage points from the previous year’s 34.74%.

The average stock price increase for companies that paid cash dividends was 32.90%, which is 37.99 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Among 314 December-closing companies that disclosed value-up initiatives, an analysis of their cash dividend disclosures showed that 304 companies (96.8%) paid dividends. The total dividends from these companies amounted to 30.8 trillion won, accounting for 87.7% of all cash dividends paid.

For 255 December-closing companies that announced high dividend policies, their cash dividends totaled 22.7 trillion won, which represented 64.9% of the total cash dividends paid.

An analysis of last year’s cash dividend disclosures of December-closing companies listed on the KOSDAQ market showed that both the number of dividend-paying companies (666) and the total amount of dividends (3.1 trillion won) increased compared to the previous year.

Both the number of dividend-paying companies (666) and the number of companies that have paid dividends consecutively for five years (432) increased slightly compared to the previous year.

The average dividend yield (2.637%) and average payout ratio (37.4%) also rose year-on-year.

With the increase in dividend scale, the average dividend yield grew by 0.108 percentage points year-on-year, reaching the highest level in the past five years.

As the average dividend yield increased and government bond yields declined, the average dividend yield exceeded government bond yields for the first time in four years since 2021.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.