Barclays Dividend: Dates, Forecasts, and Analysis

The UK banking sector vastly outperformed in 2025, with the Barclays (LSE:BARC) dividend getting hiked alongside many of its other peers.

But what’s behind this sudden surge? And can investors reliably earn a passive income with Barclays shares?

Why is the Barclays share price rising?

Throughout 2024, the Bank of England began its interest rate-cutting programme as economic inflation cooled off. This trend continued into 2025 at a slow but steady pace.

Typically, falling interest rates are bad news for banks as they apply pressure on the profit margin of their lending activity. However, the situation is a bit more nuanced.

By building up a portfolio of complex structural hedges, Barclays, along with many of its peers have essentially been able to ‘lock in’ the higher interest rates from before the Bank of England began cutting them. But since they’ve reduced the interest offered on their various savings accounts, the result has been a significant expansion in the bank’s net interest margin.

For Barclays, this surge in profitability has only been compounded by its investment banking arm that is actively investing in the financial markets. After all, when interest rates fall, the price of equities and stocks start to rise along with demand for investment banking services.

As a result, Barclays significantly outpaced investor expectations. It boosted its return on tangible equity (RoTE) to 12.3% across the first nine months of 2025, beating the group’s original target of 12% by 2026. And with excess cash on the balance sheet, management initiated yet another £500m share buyback scheme as well as hiked dividends as part of its plan to return up to £10bn to shareholders by 2026.

Put simply, the Barclays share price is rising because of improved trading performance and hitting key performance milestones.

When does Barclays pay dividends?

Like with most companies, the exact timing of dividend payments is down to the discretion of the management team. However, since 2016, Barclays has issued payments to shareholders twice a year. Prior to that, smaller dividends were paid once every quarter.

Typically, the ex-dividend dates occur in late February/early March and mid-August, with the actual payment issued usually within one month from the ex-dividend date. For example, Barclays’ 2025 ex-dividend dates were 27 February and 7 August.

What is the dividend payout ratio for Barclays?

Looking at the latest full-year results for 2024, Barclays has paid a total dividend of 8.4p per share. This was funded by generating basic earnings per share of 36.0p. Therefore, Barclays’ payout ratio sits at around 23%. Hence, the bank is paying out only a relatively small portion of earnings to shareholders, which generally indicates higher sustainability.

When compared to the bank’s current share price of around 460p, Barclays’ dividend yield is approximately 1.9%. However, depending on whether management increases dividend payments in the future and the direction of the share price, Barclays’ yield could rise or fall moving forward.

Barclays dividend history

Barclays has paid a dividend every year since 2000. However, dividends haven’t always increased. And there has been a notable reduction since the 2008 financial crisis that still hasn’t recovered. 7

A leading cause of this is the bank’s necessary decision to issue a large chunk of new shares to raise capital and weather the storm during the Great Recession. And while management has been steadily buying back shares over the last decade, the firm still has significantly more shares outstanding compared to before the financial crisis erupted.

Barclays has not paid a special dividend over the last 25 years.

What is the Barclays dividend forecast for 2025 and 2026?

Barclays has outlined its near-term strategy and targets going out until 2026. As part of its ongoing strategy, the bank is seeking to deliver:

• 12% RoTE
• Return £10bn of capital back to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.
• Generate a total group income of £30bn.
• Reduce expenses to £17bn per year.

Based on these assumptions, institutional analysts have projected that the Barclays dividend is on track to grow to 9.09p for its 2025 fiscal year, and 10.24p for 2026.

However, it’s important to remember that forecasts are not guaranteed, and the dividend per share could be lower than current expectations.

Which Bank stocks pay the highest dividend?

There are other bank stocks listed on the London Stock Exchange that also offer dividends. And as of December 2025, TBC Bank Group currently offers the highest yield across the FTSE 350.

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