Dividend payouts by world’s biggest firms set to hit dangerously high £ 1.1 trillion – Telegraph.co.uk, The Telegraph

Dividends at a fifth of the world’s biggest companies have hit dangerously high levels as shareholder payouts look set to hit a new record in 2019.

Investors in the world 1, 200 most valuable listed companies are set to receive a groundbreaking £ 1.1 trillion in 2019 just a year after topping £ 1 trillion for the first time, a study published today by Henderson International Income Trust (HINT) found.

The rise means that dividend cover, a measure of profits relative to dividends, is at its lowest level in a decade, leaving companies exposed if an economic downturn were to hit. That, in turn, would deal a blow to investors who have turned to equity markets in search of returns in an era of historically …