Top Communication Services Stocks by Dividends Paid
Top communication services companies ranked by dividends paid, latest annual filings.
What Dividends Paid Means for Communication Services Companies
Dividends paid is the cash returned to shareholders in the latest fiscal year, taken from the financing section of the cash flow statement. In communication services, the totals come almost entirely from telecom carriers, whose subscription cash flows arrive every month and fund very large distributions. Media groups and internet platforms in the same sector mostly return little or nothing, which makes any sector average close to meaningless.
Why It Matters Less in Communication Services
The largest payments in communication services sit on the heaviest borrowing in the sector. Network build-outs and spectrum are funded with debt, and the dividend competes with interest and maturities for the same cash, so the size of a total says nothing about how comfortably it is carried. A carrier can hold its payment level for years while debt climbs, and the reset, when it comes, shows up only in the following year's figure.
What to Read Alongside
Read it next to Net Income for the earnings behind the payment, Free Cash Flow for what network spending leaves behind, and Share Buybacks for how the platforms return cash instead.
| # | Symbol | Company | Sector | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VZ | Verizon Communications Inc. | Communication Services | $11.48B | $178.65B |
| 2 | GOOG | Alphabet Inc. | Communication Services | $10.05B | $3.84T |
| 3 | T | AT&T Inc. | Communication Services | $8.18B | $140.46B |
| 4 | META | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Communication Services | $5.32B | $1.61T |
| 5 | CMCSA | Comcast Corporation | Communication Services | $4.89B | $78.30B |
| 6 | TMUS | T-Mobile US, Inc. | Communication Services | $4.12B | $157.61B |
| 7 | AD | Array Digital Infrastructure, Inc. | Communication Services | $1.99B | $2.89B |
| 8 | NTES | NetEase, Inc. | Communication Services | $1.98B | $75.76B |
| 9 | VOD | Vodafone Group Public Limited Company | Communication Services | $1.93B | $36.37B |
| 10 | AMX | América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. | Communication Services | $1.85B | $72.20B |
| 11 | DIS | The Walt Disney Company | Communication Services | $1.80B | $190.63B |
| 12 | BCE | BCE Inc. | Communication Services | $1.59B | $18.88B |
| 13 | TLK | Perusahaan Perseroan (Persero) PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk | Communication Services | $1.26B | $12.08B |
| 14 | CHT | Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. | Communication Services | $1.24B | $37.34B |
| 15 | TU | TELUS Corporation | Communication Services | $1.19B | $13.69B |
| 16 | TIGO | Millicom International Cellular S.A. | Communication Services | $754.00M | $13.14B |
| 17 | RCI | Rogers Communications Inc. | Communication Services | $665.84M | $17.47B |
| 18 | KT | KT Corporation | Communication Services | $590.28M | $8.04B |
| 19 | OMC | Omnicom Group Inc. | Communication Services | $549.60M | $21.90B |
| 20 | SKM | SK Telecom Co., Ltd. | Communication Services | $544.24M | $11.71B |
| 21 | WPP | WPP plc | Communication Services | $461.23M | $5.67B |
| 22 | WMG | Warner Music Group Corp. | Communication Services | $383.00M | $15.84B |
| 23 | SIRI | Sirius XM Holdings Inc. | Communication Services | $365.00M | $9.24B |
| 24 | HUYA | HUYA Inc. | Communication Services | $344.32M | $506.97M |
| 25 | FOX | Fox Corporation | Communication Services | $287.00M | $24.52B |
| 26 | NXST | Nexstar Media Group, Inc. | Communication Services | $226.00M | $5.08B |
| 27 | PSO | Pearson plc | Communication Services | $215.15M | $11.00B |
| 28 | ATHM | Autohome Inc. | Communication Services | $211.82M | $2.35B |
| 29 | TME | Tencent Music Entertainment Group | Communication Services | $206.60M | $13.82B |
| 30 | NWS | News Corporation | Communication Services | $204.00M | $18.02B |
| 31 | WB | Weibo Corporation | Communication Services | $195.64M | $1.52B |
| 32 | MTCH | Match Group, Inc | Communication Services | $186.25M | $10.38B |
| 33 | TKO | TKO Group Holdings, Inc. | Communication Services | $185.16M | $32.41B |
| 34 | JOYY | JOYY Inc. | Communication Services | $155.53M | $4.06B |
| 35 | PLTK | Playtika Holding Corp. | Communication Services | $150.20M | $778.09M |
| 36 | SKYD | Skydance Corporation | Communication Services | $139.00M | $37.77B |
| 37 | NYT | The New York Times Company | Communication Services | $110.36M | $11.40B |
| 38 | TDS | Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. | Communication Services | $87.67M | $4.11B |
| 39 | BZ | Kanzhun Limited | Communication Services | $79.08M | $7.29B |
| 40 | WLY | John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | Communication Services | $74.36M | $2.72B |
| 41 | OPRA | Opera Limited | Communication Services | $71.17M | $1.57B |
| 42 | SBGI | Sinclair, Inc. | Communication Services | $69.00M | $865.65M |
| 43 | IRDM | Iridium Communications Inc. | Communication Services | $62.85M | $4.72B |
| 44 | MOMO | Hello Group Inc. | Communication Services | $49.50M | $639.18M |
| 45 | CNK | Cinemark Holdings, Inc. | Communication Services | $39.90M | $4.52B |
| 46 | SCHL | Scholastic Corporation | Communication Services | $20.00M | $713.55M |
| 47 | EVC | Entravision Communications Corporation | Communication Services | $18.20M | $564.80M |
| 48 | GSAT | Globalstar, Inc. | Communication Services | $10.61M | $10.74B |
| 49 | MCS | The Marcus Corporation | Communication Services | $9.16M | $859.29M |
| 50 | IDT | IDT Corporation | Communication Services | $6.50M | $2.03B |
| 51 | SHEN | Shenandoah Telecommunications Company | Communication Services | $6.45M | $561.40M |
| 52 | LUMN | Lumen Technologies, Inc. | Communication Services | $1.00M | $4.57B |
| 53 | NMAX | Newsmax, Inc. | Communication Services | $915,069 | $1.01B |
| 54 | MSGS | Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. | Communication Services | $472,000 | $9.26B |
| 55 | WBTN | WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. | Communication Services | $300,000 | $1.24B |
| 56 | DDI | DoubleDown Interactive Co., Ltd. | Communication Services | $85,000 | $674.92M |
No companies match this search.
This list ranks the total dollars paid out over the latest fiscal year, so the largest companies lead it; a big payout says nothing about the yield a share buys today. A company whose balance sheet runs above 150 times its market cap is left out, because at that gap the accounts are not in US dollars.
How this ranking is built
Companies are ranked by dividends paid as reported in their most recent annual filing with the SEC. Figures shown are in US dollars (or percent, as noted), rounded to two decimals.
- Source: annual 10-K / 20-F filings from companies trading on US exchanges (NYSE, Nasdaq, AMEX).
- Fiscal year: whichever annual period the company has most recently filed. Fiscal years don't always align with the calendar year, so the "as of FY" stamp above reflects the most common year across the table.
- Filtered out: warrants, preferred shares, and duplicate listings that share a parent company's financials.
- Size floor: A company qualifies at $500 million in market cap or above. Below that, one mis-stated figure outranks the companies the list is about.
- Currency check: A company whose annual revenue runs above 15 times its market cap is left out, because at that gap the two figures are not in the same currency.
- Currency check: A company whose balance sheet runs above 150 times its market cap is left out for the same reason.
- Update cadence: refreshed as companies file new annual reports (typically within 60–90 days of fiscal year end).
Not financial advice. This is a research tool, not a recommendation.
Frequently asked questions
Why do the largest payers here also carry the most debt?
Networks and spectrum are paid for years before the revenue they support arrives, and that spending is financed with borrowing. The same subscription cash flow then serves interest, maturities, and the dividend, which is why the biggest distributions in the sector sit beside its heaviest balance sheets. Reading the payment next to debt and cash flow shows how much room the policy actually has.
Why do media and platform companies barely appear?
Many of them return cash through repurchases, or reinvest in content and product instead of committing to a recurring payment, and content spending is a continuing obligation rather than a one-time outlay. A total ranking of cash dividends therefore captures the carriers and leaves out much of the sector's cash returns, so it describes payout habits rather than shareholder returns overall.