Buyback Watch provides a global perspective on how companies return capital to shareholders and the role buybacks play in corporate capital allocation. The report explores key trends, regional differences and the considerations investors should weigh when assessing buyback activity.
About the Global Equity Study
The Capital Group Global Equity Study explores how companies generate, grow and return value to shareholders. Covering the world's 1,600 largest listed companies, the Global Equity Study provides data-driven insights into profits, dividends, share buybacks and valuations. These insights help investors better understand the drivers of long-term equity returns and identify trends shaping global equity markets.
Latest edition
Dividend watch - November 2026
Global dividends hit Q3 record as earnings strength broadens
Global dividends reached a new Q3 high as stronger earnings supported payouts across a broad range of sectors.
Explore where growth is coming from and what the latest data tells us about the outlook for 2026.
Register to access:
- The full Dividend Watch report
- Interactive dashboard of dividend trends across regions and sectors
- Proprietary data on the world's largest companies
- Capital Group's latest outlook for global dividends
Discover where dividend growth is coming from today, and what it could mean for investors tomorrow.
What’s driving global dividend growth?
- $546 billion in global dividends, a new Q3 record.
- 88% of companies raised or maintained payouts.
- Financials contributed one-third of global dividend growth.
- $2.24 trillion forecast for global dividends in 2026, a new record.
Dividend Watch interactive dashboard
Register to explore and compare dividend payments across regions, sectors and markets over time
Dividend Watch interactive dashboard
Explore and compare dividend payments across regions, sectors and markets over time
Select up to three datasets (A, B and C) using Region, Territory, Sector and Sub-sector filters to compare different parts of the market.
Choose a time period (from Q1 2010 onwards) and view results either yearly or quarterly.
View divdend amounts as a bar chart and access the underlying figures via the Chart Data option.
Access previous editions
- Dividend Watch
- Buyback Watch
- Profit Watch
- Value Watch
All information as at 30 June 2026 and attributed to Capital Group, unless otherwise stated. Data supplied by Exchange Data International, supplemented by insight from company sources such as annual reports and results announcements and FactSet. FX data is also sourced from FactSet.
Dividend growth has been calculated in US dollars and is illustrated using indexed charts rebased to 100 in Q4 2010. All growth rates quoted in the text are year-on-year unless otherwise stated.