When a company is at the top of its industry, it is often afforded benefits that smaller players are not. Industry leaders often have key traits like economies of scale, top talent attraction, and prolific brand awareness. It often takes decades for a company to reach the pinnacle of its respective niche. Doing so demonstrates that the business has beaten out and put to bed many competitors. Mature companies often have a strong ability to return capital to shareholders. This is a key benefit for investors. These three companies are industry leaders that have just substantially increased dividend payments to their shareholders. All dividend yields and other metrics use data as of the Feb. 21 market close.
1. Walmart: King of Its Industry and Its Sector
Walmart (NYSE:WMT) is the world’s largest retailer and consumer staples company by market capitalization and revenue. It's not particularly close, either. Over the last 12 months, total sales at Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST), the next largest consumer staples company, were just 38% that of Walmart’s. Walmart is now moving to return more capital to shareholders, increasing its annual dividend by 13%.
Overall, in Walmart's fiscal year 2026, which correlates to the 2025 calendar year, it will pay a total annual dividend of $0.94 per share. It will be broken up into four quarterly payments, the next of which is payable on Apr. 7 to shareholders of record on Mar. 21. This will be the 52nd year in a row that Walmart has raised its dividend. Still, Walmart’s indicated dividend yield of 1% is low.
The company’s dividend yield has been on a steady decline since May 2022, as the company’s dividend increases haven’t kept pace with its rising stock price. Since the end of May 2022, Walmart shares have risen an incredible 120%. It's hard to blame management for the dividend yield falling. The blistering pace at which Walmart’s value has increased is hard to keep up with.
2. Constellation: Clean Energy Leader in the United States
Constellation Energy (NASDAQ:CEG) is a company that has grabbed headlines over the past year. The stock price has jumped 118%. This increase comes as nuclear energy is becoming vital to the AI revolution. Constellation is the leader in this space as the largest nuclear plant operator in the United States. More generally, it is also the largest producer of carbon-free electricity in the United States. Aside from nuclear, Constellation also has significant wind, solar, and hydroelectric assets.
Constellation is rewarding shareholders to kick off 2025, increasing its quarterly dividend by 10%. Assuming it pays this constant $0.39 dividend each quarter, its indicated dividend yield is now just over 0.5%. This is a safe assumption, as the company has paid out the same quarterly dividend each year since it went public in 2022. Due to its huge rise over the past year, Constellation is now the world’s sixth-largest public company in the utilities sector. In the United States, it ranks fourth.
3. Airbus: Capitalizing on Boeing’s Struggles
Due to the recent and highly publicized struggles of Boeing (NYSE:BA), Airbus is now the largest publicly traded plane manufacturer in the world in terms of revenue. Over the last 12 months, Airbus’ $72 billion in sales is moderately ahead of Boeing’s $67 billion. In terms of company value, Boeing’s $133 billion market capitalization edges out Airbus by less than $1 billion. Since around Jun. 2021, the stock prices of these two competitors have diverged massively. Airbus is up 47% over that period, while Boeing is down over 30%. In 2024, Airbus delivered 766 commercial planes, compared to just 348 at Boeing. That works out to a share of just under 69% for Airbus.
Airbus is now also looking to return more capital to shareholders, increasing its dividend by 11%. Its regular dividend will increase from 1.80 euros to 2 euros per share, which converts to approximately USD 1.98 to USD 2.20 per share, and it will also pay the same special dividend of 1 euro, or about USD 1.10 per share. The company will propose these increases at its Annual General Meeting on Apr. 15, 2025. Shareholders are likely to approve this. Both dividends will be payable on Apr. 24. Including the special dividend, Airbus shares traded on the Euronext Paris now have an indicated dividend yield of 1.9%. Compared to its American Depository Receipt counterpart, the EuroNext shares have performed consistently better over the past three years.