923 companies plan to pay dividends of 1.2 trillion yuan, and a number of subdivision leaders have significantly increased their dividend levels for the first time

In the context of the CSRC's repeated mentions during the year that it will promote the willingness of listed companies to pay dividends and the dividend indicators are included in the new regulations on shareholding reduction, the dividend plan for the 2023 annual report has attracted special attention.

Wind data shows that as of April 1, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges have issued 924 dividend plans, of which 923 companies have decided to pay dividends totaling 1.2 trillion yuan. On the whole, the central state-owned enterprises and large-capitalization leaders in the fields of banking, petroleum and petrochemical, insurance, coal and other fields have stable profitability and are generally more willing to pay dividends, with the cash dividend ratio (i.e., the proportion of cash dividends in the net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of the Bank in the consolidated statements, the same below) generally exceeding 30%, and the cash dividend ratio of some companies exceeding 70%.

China Shenhua, China Merchants Bank, China Mobile and other 100 billion leaders have a total cash dividend of more than 10 billion. Even CATL (300750. SZ) also gave the most generous dividend plan since its listing, with a proposed dividend of more than 20 billion yuan.

In addition to cash dividends, up to now, 87 listed companies have announced plans for share transfer or share distribution in 2023, of which 86 have used cash dividends to match share transfer or share gift.

22 leading companies plan to pay cash dividends of more than 10 billion

Cash dividends are a direct return to shareholders and are the most commonly used dividend means for listed companies. The 100 billion market value leader of A-shares has always been the leader of cash dividends, and the data shows that the 22 companies that have announced a total dividend of more than 10 billion yuan are leaders in banks, petroleum and petrochemical, operators, non-bank financial and other industries.

The dividend amount of the four major banks of "China Agricultural Industry and Construction" temporarily ranks among the top four, with a dividend ratio of 30%, and the total dividend amount of each bank has increased by about 1 billion yuan compared with 2022. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398. SH) plans to distribute 3.064 yuan (tax included) for every 10 shares, with a total dividend of 109.203 billion yuan, temporarily ranking first in the two cities, and the dividend amount of China Construction Bank (601939.SH) has also reached 100 billion yuan. Agricultural Bank of China (601288. SH) and Bank of China (601988.SH) plan to pay dividends of 80.811 billion yuan and 69.593 billion yuan respectively.

China Mobile (600941. SH), China Merchants Bank (600036. SH), China Shenhua (601088. SH) The total cash dividends of the three companies all exceeded 40 billion yuan, but they were different from the year-on-year changes in 2022. China Mobile's dividend payout ratio is quite impressive, reaching 71%, with a total of HK$51.338 billion, and the company plans to gradually increase the profit distributed in cash to more than 75% of the profit attributable to shareholders in the current year within three years from 2024.

The "king of coal" China Shenhua's share price performance during the year was outstanding, but the company's total planned dividend in 2023 will be 44.902 billion yuan, a decrease of about 5.7 billion yuan from 50.665 billion yuan in 2022, but the dividend payment ratio will still increase from 72.77% in 2022 to 75.22%. The decline in China Shenhua's total dividends may be related to the company's net profit in 2023 falling by 14.29% year-on-year, and domestic coal prices and sales both fell last year, making the profitability of coal stocks inferior to that in 2021 and 2022.

China Merchants Bank's operating income in 2023 will decline by 1.64% year-on-year, the first decline in revenue since 2009, despite this, the company still plans to pay cash dividends of 49.734 billion yuan, compared with 43.832 billion yuan in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 13.47%, and the cash dividend ratio is 35.01%.

In the sixth year of listing, CATL finally gave a generous dividend plan. Because the company was reluctant to pay more dividends and carried out private placement financing at a high level when it had a large amount of cash in hand, the dividend of more than 10 billion yuan has attracted much attention from the market. CATL plans to distribute an annual cash dividend and a special cash dividend of RMB 50.28 (tax included) to all shareholders for every 10 shares, with a total cash dividend of RMB 22.06 billion, with a dividend ratio of 50%. Looking at the dividend amount of "Ningwang" since its listing, from 2018 to 2020, it was 311 million yuan, 485 million yuan, and 559 million yuan respectively, and the company's net profit was still small at that time. In 2021, CATL did not pay dividends, and in 2022, the company achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 30.729 billion yuan, with a total cash dividend of 7.74 billion yuan that year.

In addition to the above-mentioned companies, the Postal Savings Bank (601658. SH), Ping An of China (600028. SH), Industrial Bank (601166. SH), Midea Group (000333. SZ), Chinese Shou (601628. SH), Fortune Federation of Industry (601138. SH), Yankuang Energy (600188. SH) and other large-capitalization leaders also have a total dividend of more than 10 billion yuan, and the cash dividend ratio of these companies generally exceeds 30%.

For the first time, a number of subdivided leading stocks have significantly increased their dividend levels

Companies with outstanding performance in the subdivision have a higher amount of cash dividends per share, which is deeply loved by investors. There are 25 companies with cash dividends per share of more than 2 yuan, sorted by the amount of dividends per share, quartz shares (603688. SH), Roborock (688139. SH), Changchun High-tech (000661. SZ), BYD (002594. SZ), CATL ranked in the top five, Midea Group and Xinmai Medical (688016. SH) also paid a cash dividend of $3 per share.

In some industries with a high degree of prosperity, the relevant leading companies have also increased their dividends while delivering outstanding performance.

Quartz Co., Ltd.'s performance in 2023 hit a record high, achieving an operating income of 7.184 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 258.46%, and a net profit attributable to the parent company of 5.039 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 378.92%, the company intends to pay a dividend of 5.7 yuan per share, an increase of 0.5 shares per share, and a total dividend of 2.057 billion yuan, plus a mid-year dividend of 469 million yuan, and an annual cash dividend of more than 2.5 billion yuan, with a dividend ratio of about 50%.

The reporter combed and found that in the context of the China Securities Regulatory Commission's continuous strengthening and guidance of listed companies to enhance their awareness of dividends, many companies with stable performance growth in subdivided fields finally came up with a sincere dividend plan in 2023, greatly increasing the dividend amount and cash dividend ratio in 2023, and the proposed dividend amount even exceeded the total cumulative dividend in the past few years.

Roborock and Changchun High-tech are such companies, with cash payouts of more than 4 yuan per share in 2023, both of which are the highest in history. Since Roborock was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2020, the dividend payment ratio has never exceeded 11%, and the company plans to pay a dividend of 4.68 yuan per share, totaling 615 million yuan, plus a mid-year dividend of 121 million yuan, with a total annual dividend of 730 million yuan.

Changchun High-tech share price has been declining in the past four years, with a cumulative decline of 72.56%, and since its listing 28 years ago, although the company's operating income has increased from less than 500 million yuan to 14.5 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the parent company has increased from less than 10 million yuan to 4.5 billion yuan, since the cash dividend began in 2013, in 10 years, the company has only paid 1 yuan per share in 2022 and 2019.

Tsingtao Brewery's year-end dividends and special dividends in 2023 will exceed 3.4 billion yuan, and the dividend payout ratio will reach more than 60% for the first time, while Tsingtao Brewery's cumulative cash dividends in 2020~2022 will be about 3.29 billion yuan.

As of the end of 2023, Changchun High-tech's undistributed profit is as high as 17.143 billion yuan, which has remained above 10 billion yuan for three consecutive years. In 2023, Changchun High-tech will increase the dividend amount per share to 4.5 yuan, with a total dividend of 1.809 billion yuan, which is almost equivalent to the total cash dividend in the past 9 years, and the dividend payment ratio has also increased to nearly 40%. Changchun High-tech has also formulated a shareholder return plan for 2023 to 2025, and plans to distribute profits in cash every year not less than 40% of the distributable profits realized in the current year, provided that the conditions of cash dividends are met.

The reporter also noticed that some listed companies will implement their first dividends in 2023 after making profits for several consecutive years but not paying dividends. Nine Company (689009. SH) plans to distribute cash dividends of 200 million yuan in 2023, accounting for 33.45% of the company's net profit attributable to the parent company in the consolidated statement for 2023. From 2020 to 2022, the net profit attributable to the parent company of Nine Company was 73.4731 million yuan, 411 million yuan, and 448 million yuan respectively, but no cash dividends were paid, which may be due to the negative undistributed profit caused by the continuous losses of Nine Company for many years before listing, and as of December 31, 2023, the company's undistributed profit loss was 2.018 billion yuan.

The 2023 annual report is still being disclosed, and less than 30% of the total number of companies that have disclosed their annual reports will be included in the new rules on reducing shareholdings.

(This article is from Yicai)