Dividend Yield Data for FTSE 100

Average Dividend Yields FTSE 100, 250 and 350

The above provides the average dividend yields for the FTSE 100, 250 and 350. The data is updated on a monthly basis.

In addition, the table provides the average price earnings ratios for the indices, average dividend covers and the value and movement of each indices.

The data is useful to benchmark any intended share purchase against the overall average performance for each given metric.

FTSE 100 Dividend Yields

The list of dividend yields above provides the yield performance of every company in the FTSE 100 index.

The data is updated from the close position of Fridays each week and is refreshed on this website weekly.

FTSE 100 Index Average Dividend Yields

What is this Data Useful for?

If you are a stock market investor and are seeking to optimise your investments for both dividend and capital returns this data is extremely useful.

It will allow you to see which companies in the FTSE 100 are paying the highest dividend yields.

The data allows you to sort the companies by highest and lowest paying dividend yields.

In addition to dividend yields we provide the dividend payout values, price earnings ratios, dividend coverages and rankings for each company.

What is a Dividend Yield?

A dividend yield is the measure of dividend income a share produces expressed as a percentage of the current share price for the given company.

Put another way, it is the percentage income return you can expected to receive from your invested share capital; it is much the same as the percentage return you receive from saving money with a savings account in a bank.

Dividends are effectively the cost of capital a company is prepared to return to a shareholder for using that capital to grow its business.

The difference between shares and savings with a bank is risk. Invested share capital is at risk of company failure, that share invested capital is not protected, whereas as savings with a bank are protected in the UK by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to a value of £85,000 per person, per institution.

You can expect to receive far higher returns from invested share capital than you can with savings with a bank. As a shareholder not only do you benefit from dividend income but you can also expect, if you invest wisely, to receive incremental growth on your share capital invested. That is the risk and reward calculation an investor takes when buying shares.

What is the FTSE 100?

The FTSE or “footsie”, as it is often pronounced, stands for The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index. The is the UK’s share index of top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange based on the companies highest market capitalisation. Market capitalisation is calculated by multiplying the total number of shares by the present share price. It is both a measure of the number of shares traded by a company and the confidence of the market in that company, i.e. the level of the share price. The combination of those two metrics effectively provide a valuation of a company.

The FTSE 100 is home to some of the biggest and most successful companies in the world.

What do the other Metrics mean in the Data?

Within the data table you will also find dividend payout values, price earnings ratios and dividend coverage ratios for each company on the FTSE 100. These metrics are useful when used in conjunction with the dividend yield to arrive at whether a share may be worthy of further consideration and research for making an investment.

Dividend payouts are the cash value that is paid out for holding a share in a given company. These are expressed in pence, so for example, Vodafone at week ending 3rd January 2020 was prepared to payout 7.39p per share. When expressed against the share price of 147.94p on the same day this would provide a dividend yield of 4.9%.

Price earnings ratios or PE ratio. This ratio is calculated by dividing the market value per share by the earnings per share value. It is a measure of how many more times the value of earnings per share the market is prepared to pay for a share than the company is actually producing in profit. One could effectively regard this measure of how confident the market is in a share. So the higher the price earnings ratio the better the market is expecting this share to do. A low price earnings ratio could also indicate a company is under valued.

Dividend coverage ratios shows the number of multiples of profit a company has over its committed dividend level. Effectively how many times a company can cover its dividend commitment by its profits. The higher the coverage ratio the more ability the company has to cover its dividend commitment. Another way to supplement this ratio is to check how cash liquid a company is, you can do this by checking how much cash a company has on its balance sheet. Cash will always be king!

These three additional metrics add more credence and depth to the dividend ratio check. You can also supplement this data by digging deeper into the company performance on this website. For each company on the FTSE 100 my site also provides the week ending closing share price, 52 week high share price, 52 week low share price and market capitalisation value. You can find this data by clicking on the company name on the table.

How can you use the Data to get the Most out of it?

This data is a great starting point for your dividend investing research. As an investor you should be looking for value, return, acceptable risk and growth from your share investing strategy. Any investment is a balance of these measures.

To assist with and to supplement your research I also provide the dividend payment history of every FTSE 350 company for the last seven years. This is a measure of consistency of dividend payment performance. In essence, regardless of the ups and downs of the market and share prices, how often and how consistently does a company pay dividends? A great way to weed out the wheat from the chaff.

In addition I provide the average dividend yield performance of every sector of the FTSE 350. This will allow you to compare the individual dividend yield performance of your company against the sector average from which it operates from.

With regard to the forward view for dividend performance of the FTSE 100 in 2020, below is where some of the top city analysts believe this year will go. The data is based on a mixture of 2019 and 2020 actual data and forecasts.

Source: AJ Bell

Source: AJ Bell

Other Considerations when Buying Shares

In addition to these numerical performance measures I recommend you consider some softer, more ephemeral aspects of your potential investments

How moated is the company’s offering?

This means to see how protected the offering of the company is. Is it unique and without competition? Can the company sustain this position in the medium term.

Examples of this could be patented technology which is in high demand. Apple are a great example of this.

It could be exclusive mining or drilling rights to areas with rich resources, Rio Tinto are a good example of this kind of competitive moat.

How sustainable is the business model?

This aspect considers the ability for a business to maintain and adapt its competitive advantage and innovation level.

A good example of this relates to the global economy. It is at a pivot point into new technologies currently, moving away from carbon producing technology to low carbon technology.

Many businesses are exposed this shift, for example oil companies, car manufacturers and manufacturers generally.

If some of your potential investments are in this sphere, consider the robustness of their plans to mitigate the effects of this change on their business. What are they doing to innovate and how fast are they doing it?