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Wednesday's Featured Article
Giants Costco, Sanofi, and SAP Raise Dividends by Over 10%Authored by Leo Miller. Posted: 4/28/2026. 
Key Points
- Costco, Sanofi, and SAP each raised their dividends by more than 10%, signaling continued capital return commitments despite varied stock performance.
- After a rare annual decline in 2025, Costco is up more than 15% in 2026.
- Software giant SAP is now trading near its three-year low forward price-to-earnings ratio amid an AI-driven sell-off.
- Special Report: The Biggest IPO Ever: Claim Your Stake Today
Several stocks with market capitalizations above $100 billion recently announced notable dividend moves. These large industry names — despite differing performances — continue to return capital to shareholders. Costco Announces 13% Dividend Boost Amid Strong Start to 2026First up is the world’s second-most valuable consumer staples company, Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST). With a market capitalization near $450 billion, only Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) is larger in the sector.
In 2025 Costco fell roughly 5% (total return), marking only the sixth negative annual return since 1994 — an impressive record of positive returns in over 80% of the past 32 years. After 2025’s decline, Costco shares have rebounded in 2026, delivering a total return of more than 15% so far. Strong monthly sales reports — up 9.3% year over year in January and up 11.3% year over year in the five weeks ended April 5 — helped drive the gains. Costco has also benefited from a market-wide rotation into consumer staples. Amid a strong start to the year, Costco announced a 13% dividend increase. The quarterly payout will rise to $1.47, payable on May 15 to shareholders of record as of the May 1 close. That implies an indicated dividend yield near 0.6%. While the yield is modest, Costco has regularly issued sizable increases, with a five-year annualized dividend growth rate of 12.75%. High-Yield Sanofi Boosts Dividend After Mixed 2025Next is Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY), one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Sanofi is one of only about 15 pharma and biotech stocks with a market capitalization above $100 billion. The shares have been range-bound for a while, producing a total loss of more than 10% over the past five years. Despite Dupixent delivering 25% growth in 2025, disappointing pipeline readouts weighed on the stock. The company recently appointed Belén Garijo as CEO. Her mandate is to reinvigorate Sanofi’s innovation pipeline and develop a major product beyond Dupixent, which accounted for nearly 40% of sales last quarter and highlights the need for greater diversification. Meanwhile, Sanofi is returning more capital to shareholders, having raised its dividend to $2.42 per depository receipt — about a 19% increase in U.S. dollar terms, partly driven by a stronger euro. Because France withholds tax on dividends paid abroad and depositary fees reduce the payout further, the effective yield to U.S. holders ranges from roughly 4.7% gross down to about 3.5% net. The annual payment will be made on June 3 to shareholders of record as of the May 4 close. Notably, Sanofi has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years through 2025. AI Pushes Down SAP, Dividend Moves Up Amid Strong EarningsLastly, global software giant SAP (NYSE: SAP) has faced significant pressure recently. With a market capitalization near $400 billion, SAP is among the largest software companies worldwide. The stock is down more than 25% in 2026 and over 40% from its 52-week high. A sell-off in artificial intelligence-related software names in late January and early February hit SAP particularly hard, pushing its forward price-to-earnings ratio to about 20x — near its lowest level in three years. Still, SAP rallied roughly 7.4% after its latest earnings report, beating adjusted EPS estimates while slightly missing on sales. Cloud revenue grew 27%, and current cloud backlog rose 25%, indicating solid demand ahead. The company’s operating margin also expanded by about 275 basis points to 30%. SAP raised its dividend per depository receipt to roughly $2.93, an increase of about 15% in U.S. dollar terms. After German withholding tax and depositary fees, the net yield to U.S. holders is roughly 1.2%–1.4%. The annual dividend will be paid on May 15 to shareholders of record as of the May 5 close. Multiple Analysts Eye $1,100 for Steady-Eddy CostcoCostco has received several price target upgrades in April, with many analysts forecasting the stock could top $1,100. April’s updated price targets average about $1,074, modestly above the MarketBeat consensus near $1,046 — implying roughly 5% upside from current levels. Targets tend to track Costco’s stable price, since it is one of the market’s least volatile names. That stability hasn’t prevented strong performance: the stock has delivered a total return of more than 100% over the past three years. |
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