Dividend yield recovers

On 30 November 2003 the dividend yield on Dutch shares was 3.9 percent a year. This brings the dividend yield back to its 1993 level. In 2000 it was only 1.8 percent.

Dividend yield on Dutch shares

Share prices affect yield

The fall in dividend yield in the period 1993–2000 was not caused by Dutch companies paying less dividend in these years. On the contrary: dividend payments increased from 4.6 billion euro in 1992 to 12.3 billion euro in 2000. However, the value of the issued shares rose even more strongly, mainly because of the surge in share prices in this period. These pushed down the dividend yield from 4.3 percent in 1992 to 1.8 percent in 2000.

In the years 1984–1992 dividends rose at the same rate as the share values on the stock exchange. The dividend yield in this period fluctuated between 4 and 5 percent.

After 2000 the drop in prices of Dutch shares led to a recovery in the dividend yield.

Paid dividend and share values

Paid dividend rose until 2003

The amount of dividend paid to shareholders rose nearly continually from 1984 to 2003, with only two incidental peaks: in 1998 and 1999 the total amount of dividend payments was unusually large because of two incidental payments.

Dividends paid on Dutch shares

Less dividend paid in 2003

For the first time in twenty years, Dutch companies paid less dividend to their shareholders. In the first eleven months of 2003 the amount paid was 1.6 billion euro lower than in the same period in 2002.

Paul van der Beek

Source: StatLine