Las cinco empresas que más dividendos pagan en todo el mundo

In the first quarter of this fiscal year, global dividend payments reached $424.5 billion, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year. Five international companies lead the rankings as the most generous to their shareholders. Globally, dividends are typically a source of joy for shareholders. Twenty companies distributed $111.1 billion in ordinary dividends during the first quarter of 2026, accounting for 26.2% of all that companies paid worldwide.

One out of every four dollars that reached the pockets of global shareholders came from a list that fits on a single sheet of paper. This information comes from the first edition of the Global Dividends & Buybacks Index by Janus Henderson, which has expanded its historic dividend index to include stock buybacks as well. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, global payments reached $424.5 billion, a 10% rise compared to the same period last year.

At the top of the ranking of the world's biggest dividend payers, there is little movement, with Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco repeating as the largest payer for the fifth consecutive quarter. Following it are Swiss pharmaceuticals Novartis and Roche. Switzerland was the leading European payer in the quarter, with $27.3 billion, ahead of Denmark ($9.4 billion) and well above Germany ($7.5 billion) or France ($3.4 billion).

In fourth place is technology company Microsoft in the United States. American technology companies distributed $43.7 billion in dividends and executed $66.6 billion in buybacks in the quarter, accounting for 20.3% of the total worldwide. At fifth place is Chinese bank China Construction Bank. The ranking only includes ordinary dividends, excluding one-time payments that moved a lot of money in countries like the United Kingdom or Japan in the first quarter.

Furthermore, not all companies pay dividends worldwide: in the United States, payments are made quarterly and the company is always on the list, while Europe concentrates most of its dividends in the second quarter. The United Kingdom concentrates its payments between the second and third quarters, and for China, the first quarter is the worst of the year.

Therefore, a company can disappear from the top 20 the next quarter without touching a single penny of its pay policy. The report itself warns that all figures are estimates, not empirical data. Janus Henderson forecasts a 8.3% growth in global dividends in 2026, above the 6.8% growth in 2025, and a 1.1% drop in buybacks, after a 6.1% increase last year.