In this piece, we will take a look at U.K. aristocrats ranked by dividend yield. For more stocks, head on over to U.K. Dividend Aristocrats List: 2023 Rankings by Yield.
Dividend stocks with solid growth history remain the safest and reliable stocks to invest in this year, thanks to rising volatility, inflation and uncertainty that have made financial markets extremely vulnerable. As opposed to buying and selling regular stocks with the hopes of profiting from share price growth or drops, dividend stocks pay out a portion of a firm’s income periodically to investors. There are several kinds of dividend stocks, which include master limited partnerships (MLPs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), preferred dividend paying stocks, and common dividend paying stocks. Out of thee, MLPs and REITs are special companies that pay little corporate taxes as they are legally required to funnel most of their profits to investors as dividends.
In fact, shares of these two are called units, since they entitle the owner to a piece of income. On the other hand, preferred dividend paying stocks do not entitle a holder to any decision making leverage in the company, with the only guarantee being a dividend income if the board decides. Common dividend stocks are the same except they also count as a vote in decision making. Finally, the management of stock companies is not required to pay dividends, and choosing to do so is their discretion depending on a firm’s growth plans and other considerations.
Additionally, within the dividend paying stocks themselves, there are two primary categories. These are dividend aristocrats and dividend champions. The former (when talking about U.S. stocks) are firms that have grown their dividends for the past 25 years and are part of the Standard and Poor 500 index. The latter are those firms that have grown their dividends for 25 years without being a part of the S&P 500. If 25 years of dividend growth was not enough to excite you, then the top slot of the food chain in the dividend stock categorization belongs to dividend kings – firms that have grown their dividends consecutively for five decades. There’s another important category of dividend growers known as dividend challengers, which are firms that have been growing their dividends for at least the past five years. Who knows, some of the challenges of today could very well be the kings of tomorrow!
Zooming in on the British economy, the U.K. seems to be on a road to recovery after being dealt a host of devastating shocks last year. The Russian invasion of Ukraine hit the country the hardest, especially its natural gas and power sector which saw prices jump to record levels and strained the budgets of both businesses and the everyday consumer. Inflation in Great Britain peaked at a painful 11.1% in October 2022, but it has been on a downward trajectory since then with the latest figures for February 2023 seeing the CPI rising to 10.4% annually. This was however a shock for analysts and economists, as the figure had previously dropped to 10.1% in January causing cheer that the upward trend had finally been broken. The rise was particularly worrying since inflation had also risen to 9.2% in February, as the latest rise indicated that a trend was building as opposed to a one off occurrence.
All this stress, combined with high interest rates from the Bank of England and a weaker pound, is not doing the British economy any help either. The British Gross Domestic Product Index (GDP Index), which measures the economy as an index compared to a baseline of 2019, has only just recovered from the devastation of the coronavirus. The index fell to 73.7 in April 2020, when the virus had just hit, and flirted with flattish levels in 2022 as the Russian invasion of Ukraine strained the global commodity and energy markets. However, the GDP did recover in January 2023, when the index was 100.4 from December’s 100. However, high inflation led to a flat February once again as the index stayed at the January reading.
Looking at the future, Ernst and Young paints a slightly brighter picture of the economy. It believes that the U.K. might be able to avoid a recession this year since it will not contract for two consecutive quarters. This bout of optimism is primarily based on easing inflationary pressures, since the British economy had been expected to contract by 0.7% this year but is now expected to grow by 0.2%. From 2024 onwards it’s nothing but growth since the firm expects 2024 to post 1.9% growth and 2025 to post 2.3% GDP growth.
EY’s UK Chair Mr. Hywel Ball outlines:
The UK economy seems to be turning a corner, albeit very slowly. Economic performance has been resilient, despite challenges in the latter half of 2022, but the significance of the upgraded outlook shouldn’t be overblown. While easing, the economy’s challenges haven’t gone away overnight: inflation is still in double-digits and energy prices remain historically high.
However, perceptions matter and the fact the economy has been able to outperform expectations could help stir a revival in business and consumer confidence. Of course, there is still room for economic surprises, but the balance of risks has become a little more favourable than the last forecast. And while subdued growth this year is far from ideal, falling energy prices and inflation, an end to rises in borrowing costs, and growing confidence, mean the economy has a chance to shed some of the gloom it has accumulated recently.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at Britain’s top dividend aristocrats, with the notable picks being Supermarket Income REIT plc (LON:SUPR.L), British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS.L), and Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN.L).
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Our Methodology
To compile our list of U.K. dividend aristocrats by 2023 yield, we took a look at the SPDR S&P UK Dividend Aristocrats UCITS ETF and calculated the dividend yield for each of the holdings. The list covers stocks that have grown their dividend for the past seven years. The firms were ranked based on their yield, and the top twenty U.K. dividend aristocrats for 2023 are listed below.
UK Dividend Aristocrats List: 2023 Rankings by Yield
20. Smith & Nephew plc (LON:SN.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 2.62%
Smith & Nephew plc (LON:SN.L) is a medical devices company based in Watford. It sells a variety of products for joint repair, joint visualization, hip and knee implants, cartilage substitutes, and other products.
Along with British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS.L), Supermarket Income REIT plc (LON:SUPR.L), and Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN.L), Smith & Nephew plc (LON:SN.L) is a high yield U.K. dividend aristocrat stock.
19. BAE Systems plc (LON:BA.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 2.63%
BAE Systems plc (LON:BA.L) is a defense company headquartered in Farnborough. The firm is one of the biggest defense companies in the world, with products such as electronic warfare systems and space equipment.
18. Safestore Holdings plc (LON:SAFE.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 2.95%
Safestore Holdings plc (LON:SAFE.L) is a real estate investment trust based in Borehamwood. It primarily owns and operates storage units in Britain, France, and Spain.
17. Pets at Home Group Plc (LON:PETS.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 3.21%
Pets at Home Group Plc (LON:PETS.L) is a pet product company headquartered in Handforth. It has a physical and virtual retail presence through which it sells products such as pet food, pet health, and pet accessories.
16. Derwent London Plc (LON:DLN.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 3.24%
Derwent London Plc (LON:DLN.L) is a real estate investment trust based in London. The firm is one of the largest REITs in London, through its multibillion pound property portfolio.
15. Drax Group plc (LON:DRX.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 3.27%
Drax Group plc (LON:DRX.L) is a utility company based in Selby. It generates electricity through renewable sources such as pellets and hydroelectric sources. The firm also sells biomass pellets and has more than four thousand megawatts of generation capacity.
14. SEGRO Plc (LON:SGRO.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 3.38%
SEGRO Plc (LON:SGRO.L) is another London-based real estate investment trust. It has a multibillion pound portfolio of millions of square feet of industrial and warehousing properties.
13. Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 3.39%
Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR.L) is one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies. It sells a wide variety of products such as skincare, healthcare, personal care, wellness, nutrition, and food. Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR.L) is based in London.
12. Big Yellow Group Plc (LON:BYG.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 3.55%
Big Yellow Group Plc (LON:BYG.L) is a real estate investment trust based in Bagshot. It primarily owns and operates self storage properties and sites.
11. Schroders plc (LON:SDR.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 4.47%
Schroders plc (LON:SDR.L) is a financial services firm based in London. It operates different investment vehicles such as equity and fixed income mutual funds and serves the needs of several customers such as high net worth and institutions.
10. National Grid plc (LON:NG.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 4.61%
National Grid plc (LON:NG.L) is an electricity and natural gas distributor based in London. It distributes the products in both the U.K. and in New York.
9. Hargreaves Lansdown plc (LON:HL.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 5.08%
Hargreaves Lansdown plc (LON:HL.L) is a financial services firm operating out of Bristol. The company offers savings accounts, pension products, and other services.
8. LondonMetric Property Plc (LON:LMP.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 5.14%
LondonMetric Property Plc (LON:LMP.L) is London-based REIT with more than ten million square feet of property.
7. Assura Plc (LON:AGR.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 6.05%
Assura Plc (LON:AGR.L) is a Warrington-based REIT that operates healthcare property.
6. Primary Health Properties PLC (LON:PHP.L)
Latest Dividend Yield: 6.19%
Primary Health Properties PLC (LON:PHP.L) is an REIT that invests in the healthcare segments with hundreds of properties in its portfolio.
Supermarket Income REIT plc (LON:SUPR.L), Primary Health Properties PLC (LON:PHP.L), British American Tobacco p.l.c. (LON:BATS.L), and Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN.L) are the top British dividend aristocrats.
Click to continue reading and see UK Dividend Aristocrats List: 2023 Rankings by Yield.
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Disclosure: None. UK Dividend Aristocrats List: 2023 Rankings by Yield is originally published on Insider Monkey.