The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) has had a rocky ride this week, crashing 97 points yesterday to 6,630 before regaining 43 points to get back to 6,673 by late morning today — and it’s all due to uncertainties about what the US Federal Reserve is going to do and when.
But if you focus on dividends, you can simply ignore such day-to-day panics — but do be sure to hold on to your shares until they pass their ex-dividend date if you want to be eligible for the cash. Here are three FTSE 100 companies reaching their cut-off day next Wednesday, 20 November:
Vodafone
It’s interim dividend time for Vodafone Group (LSE: VOD) (NASDAQ: VOD.US) shareholders next Wednesday, and there’s 3.53p per share up for grabs. That’s 8% up on the first half last year, and if we see the same rise at year-end we’ll be on for 11p per share for a yield of 4.7% on today’s 231.7p share price.
That yield comes even after Vodafone’s price rise of more than 40% over the past 12 months. But with rumours of takeovers and mergers coming regularly, with the latest potential suitor being AT&T, who knows for how much longer there’ll be an independent Vodafone dividend?
NEXT
By its halfway stage in July, NEXT (LSE: NXT) had seen sales up 2.2% to £1,677m, with pre-tax profit up 13.8% to £217m and earnings per share up 19.9% to 142p. That allowed the fashion chain to raise its interim dividend by 16.1% to 36p per share. Analysts are currently forecasting a total yield of 2.2%, and with the shares priced at 5,510p after a 12-month gain of 50%, that’s in line with a similar rise of 16% in the final dividend.
NEXT has a strong history of annual dividend increases, and it’s been made possible by four years of earnings rises in a row after just a modest 8% fall in the crunch year of 2009. And there’s more predicted this year, with a 17% EPS rise penciled in.
Tate & Lyle
Tate & Lyle (LSE: TATE) shareholders haven’t had a great year, but the share price has been picking itself out of its slump since the start of October and is actually now up around 8% over 12 months — although that’s still some way behind the FTSE.
But we do have a 7.8p-per-share interim dividend to look forward to, with a full-year yield of a better-than-average 3.4% currently forecast too. That 7.8p, announced despite adjusted first-half EPS falling 4% to 29.9p per share, represents a boost of 5.4% over the same stage last year.