The Walt Disney Company has announced it is planning to boost dividend payments for shareholders in fiscal year 2026. The dividend is increasing by $0.50 to $1.50 per share in 2026. The dividend will be paid in two $0.75 portions in January 2026 and July 2026.
This continues Disney’s trend of slowly increasing its dividend payments closer to pre-COVID levels. Disney halted its dividend payments in 2020 after paying $1.76 per share in 2019. The company reintroduced its dividend in 2023 with a one-time payment of $0.30 per share. Since then, the dividends have slowly increased in 2024 and 2025.
Some investors may look at the increasing dividend as a worrying sign that Disney doesn’t have ideas on how to invest that cash. There’s some fear the stock is pushing back into the value category versus the growth category. However, Disney is still investing large amounts of money into growth opportunities. That includes new theme park projects, new cruise ships, and more.
Overall, Disney’s stock is still far off from its all-time high price around $200 per share in 2021. That growth was fueled by optimism around Disney’s streaming offerings. Since then, the stock has bounced around between $80 and $110 over the last few years.
