# Dividends and valuations across the US, Canada and the UK: what 2,560 large companies pay right now

Data as of 2026-09-06. Source: https://foliofundamentals.com/research/dividends-and-valuations-us-canada-uk-2026

Key findings
    
      - 82% of large Canadian companies and 81% of large UK companies pay a dividend, against 60% in the United States.
      - Among payers, the median yield is 2.8% in Canada, 2.7% in the UK and 2.2% in the US. 36% of Canadian payers yield more than 4%.
      - 16% of Canadian payers, 11% of US payers and 10% of UK payers paid out more than they earned over the last twelve months.
      - The median large company trades at 21.5× earnings in the US, 18.8× in Canada and 16× in the UK. Technology is the most expensive sector at 32.1×; financials the cheapest at 13.1×.
      - 39% of large companies with five years of history trade at least 20% below their own five-year average P/E; 31% trade at least 20% above it.
    
  

  Most dividend and valuation statistics you can find online describe the S&P 500 and stop there. FolioFundamentals screens roughly 4,843 listings across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom every day, so we can ask the same questions of three markets at once. This study covers the 2,560 companies worth US$2 billion or more on the September 6, 2026 snapshot: 2,122 in the US, 225 in Canada and 213 in the UK.

  
## Canada and the UK are dividend markets; the US is not

  Four in five large Canadian and British companies pay a dividend. In the United States it is three in five, and the gap is not a rounding error: it reflects the weight of technology and biotech in the US market, where reinvesting every dollar is the norm, against the banks, pipelines, utilities, miners and consumer staples that dominate Toronto and London. Canadian payers also yield the most, with more than a third of them above 4%.
  
  The streak figure is the one to pause on. In the US and Canada, more than a third of payers have raised their dividend for ten straight years or more. In the UK only 12% have, a legacy of the 2020 cuts, when many London-listed companies suspended payments outright and reset the clock. A UK income portfolio built on yield alone will include a lot of companies with short records; the dividend tracker for UK investors shows the streak next to the yield for that reason.

  
## One in ten large payers is paying more than it earns

  A payout ratio above 100% means the dividend exceeded reported profit over the last year. It is not always a warning: a one-off charge can depress earnings for a year while cash flow stays intact, and real estate investment trusts are structured to pay out nearly everything. But it is where dividend cuts come from. Canada has the largest share at 16%, driven by its energy and real estate names; the US sits at 11% and the UK at 10%. Checking a payout against free cash flow as well as earnings, which the payout ratio calculator does, separates the temporary cases from the structural ones.

  
## What a "normal" P/E is depends on the sector more than the country

  The spread between sectors is far wider than the spread between countries. Technology's median of 32.1× is two and a half times financials' 13.1×, which is why a single market-wide P/E threshold makes a poor screen: it fills with banks and energy companies and never shows a software business. FolioFundamentals normalises every valuation ratio against the company's sector for exactly this reason.
  

  
## The UK is the cheapest market, Canada pays the most

  Country still matters at the margin. The median large UK company trades at 16× earnings against 21.5× in the US, a discount that has persisted for years and is part of why London-listed companies have been targets for takeovers and buybacks. Canada sits between the two on valuation and leads on yield.
  
  

  
## Cheap against its own history: 39% of companies

  The Fundamental Score rewards a stock for being cheap relative to its own past rather than on an absolute number. Of the 1,918 large companies with five years of earnings history, 748 (39%) trade at least 20% below their own five-year average P/E and 601 (31%) at least 20% above it. By country the "cheap versus history" share is 33% in the US, 39% in Canada and 93% in the UK. A discount to history is not a buy signal by itself, since earnings may have fallen for good reason, but it is where the screener's "Long-Term Value" and "Quality at a Discount" presets start.

  
## Method

  
    - Universe. Every common-stock listing in FolioFundamentals' screener for the United States (NYSE, Nasdaq), Canada (TSX, TSXV) and the United Kingdom (LSE Main Market, AIM) on the September 6, 2026 snapshot: 4,843 listings. Warrants, rights, preferred lines and shell listings are excluded by the screener itself.
    - Size cut. Market value of US$2 billion or more at the snapshot's exchange rates, leaving 2,560 companies. Smaller companies are excluded because their dividend and earnings data are patchier.
    - Dividends. A payer is any company with a positive trailing-twelve-month dividend yield. Payout ratio is trailing dividends divided by trailing net income. Streaks count consecutive fiscal years of increases in the dividend per share; the data covers 26 years, so a 26-year streak means "at least 26".
    - Valuation. Trailing P/E on trailing-twelve-month earnings; loss-making companies and P/Es above 200 are excluded from medians. "Own five-year average" is the average of the company's annual P/E over the last five fiscal years.
    - Source data. Company financial statements and market prices as processed by FolioFundamentals, from its licensed market-data provider. Figures are as of the snapshot date and will drift; the screener shows the live values.
  
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