Coca-Cola (KO +0.46%) is a celebrated Dividend King that has paid and raised its dividend for 62 years. It's as reliable as dividend stocks come, and Warren Buffett has praised it as one of his favorite stocks, singling out its dividend. Let's see how much it's going to pay out in dividends this year.
A top dividend stock for all kinds of investors
Coca-Cola is known for its rock-solid dividend that typically pays a high yield and is steady under all sorts of circumstances. Management paid the dividend throughout the tumultuous beginning of the pandemic when sales plummeted, and the payout ratio was well over 100%.
At the current stock price, the dividend yields 2.6%, which is low for Coca-Cola. It's usually around 3%. But even at this yield, it's still double what you'd receive from the S&P 500 index.
NYSE: KO
Key Data Points
Why is it low these days? Dividend yield works conversely with price gain, and Coca-Cola stock is beating the market, up 22% this year versus 17% for the S&P 500. Coca-Cola is an excellent dividend stock, but it doesn't usually beat the market. Right now, investors are prizing its stability and pricing power in a volatile market. It's delivered phenomenal performance over the past two years, finally surpassing its revenue from 10 years ago with record sales figures.
High sales fill its cash coffers and fund its legendary dividend. It made $10.7 billion in net income in 2023 and has a payout ratio of around 75%. That enabled the company to pay out $7.95 billion in total dividends last year. Management raised the dividend for the 62nd time in February to $0.485 per share quarterly, which translates into $1.94 per share total in 2024. It has 4.31 billion in shares outstanding, which means it will pay about $8.36 billion in dividends in 2024 -- and that should certainly please its shareholders.
