Last Year, Kosdaq Listed Companies' Cash Dividends Surpassed 2 Trillion Won for the First Time... Higher than Government Bonds and Fixed Deposits

[Image source=Yonhap News]

원본보기 아이콘

[Asia Economy Reporter Myunghwan Lee] Last year, the total amount of cash dividends in the KOSDAQ market surpassed 2 trillion won for the first time ever. Among KOSDAQ-listed companies that conducted year-end dividends, 60% paid cash dividends for five consecutive years.

The Korea Exchange announced on the 20th that this was revealed after analyzing the cash dividend disclosures of KOSDAQ market companies with December fiscal year-end over the past five years.

The total amount of dividends to be paid this year, based on the 2021 fiscal year settlement results in the KOSDAQ market, is 2.204 trillion won. This marks the first time the total has exceeded 2 trillion won. It is an increase of 24.8% (437.8 billion won) compared to the previous year.

The number of companies that paid cash dividends was 589, an increase of 5.7% (32 companies) from the previous year. Notably, 360 of these companies, accounting for 61.1%, paid dividends for five consecutive years.

원본보기 아이콘

The average dividend yield fell by 0.113 percentage points from last year to 1.446%. Despite the increase in dividend size, the average dividend yield slightly declined due to a rise in stock prices compared to the previous year.

However, the dividend yield exceeded the government bond yield for six consecutive years. Compared to fixed deposit interest rates, it was also higher for two consecutive years. The 1-year government bond yield in 2021 was 0.917%, and the 1-year fixed deposit interest rate was 1.190%. Among the 589 companies, 342 (58.1%) had dividend yields higher than the government bond yield.

원본보기 아이콘

The average payout ratio of cash dividend companies was 26.9%, down from 32.7% last year. This is explained by improved earnings of the companies included in the calculation. The average net income per company increased from 17 billion won in 2020 to 22.1 billion won last year.

The average stock price fluctuation rate of cash dividend companies at the end of last year was also higher than the KOSDAQ index. The annual stock price fluctuation rate of dividend-paying companies last year was 22.4%, nearly four times higher than the 6.8% fluctuation rate of the KOSDAQ index during the same period.

A Korea Exchange official stated, "We believe that listed companies are expanding active dividend policies to return profits to shareholders," adding, "We plan to continue efforts to promote dividends and expand a dividend-based investment culture through ongoing management of dividend information provision and dividend-related products."

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.