The share prices of East African Breweries Plc (EABL), Kenya Power and Safaricom have rallied after all three firms declared higher interim dividends to shareholders this past week.
The price rally is attributable to increased demand for the stocks as investors seek to lock in the early cash payout.
Safaricom’s stock has risen the most, growing by 4.57 percent from Sh30.60 on Wednesday before the dividend announcement to Sh32 at the close of trading on Friday last week.
The firm raised its interim dividend payout by 54.5 percent to Sh0.85 per share, up from Sh0.55 per share for the last two comparable financial cycles.
The telco's share price reached a one-year high price of Sh32.50 in Thursday’s trading session.
The company is set to close its register of shareholders on February 25 ahead of the payment of the dividend by March 31, 2026.
The announcement of the higher interim dividend follows the company realising a 52.1 percent net profit growth to Sh42.7 billion in the half year ended September 2025, buoyed by a double-digit growth of the financial services platform M-Pesa.
Safaricom traditionally declares its interim dividend in the month of February.
EABL and Kenya Power have marked modest share price appreciations of 2.3 and 1.6 percent respectively after also declaring larger interim dividends.
Utility Kenya Power saw its share price rise to Sh15.45 on Friday last week from Sh15.2 on February 2 before the interim dividend disclosure while EABL’s share price increased to Sh250 from Sh245.25 on January 29, a day before the payout disclosure.
Kenya Power saw its net profit rise to Sh10.4 billion from Sh9.9 billion.
The interim dividend will be paid on March 27 to shareholders on its register as at February 23.
The company attributed its stronger performance in the half year to improved electricity sales which grew by 6.9 percent from Sh107.42 billion to Sh114.87 billion on higher electricity demand and improved distribution efficiency.
EABL raised its interim dividend by the largest margin of 60 percent after posting a 37.6 percent growth in profit after tax to Sh11.6 billion in the half year ended December 2025.
The firm will pay an interim dividend of Sh4 per share, up from Sh2.50 paid out last year.
The brewer will close its register of shareholders on February 20 before paying out Sh3.16 billion in dividends on April 30.
The higher payouts have lifted Safaricom and Kenya Power year-to-date share price gains to 12.87 percent and 13.6 percent respectively, beating the average performance of the bourse so far in 2026 which sits at 8.65 percent as presented by the Nairobi all-share index (Nasi).
EABL’s share price however remains underwater, marking a year-to-date contraction of 4.94 percent from Sh263 at the end of December 2025 to underline volatility in the stock after the disclosure of a stake sale by Diageo in the company to Japan's Asahi Group.
The stock price of a company paying an interim dividend increases as more investors buy into the counter to lock in the cash payment.
Share prices however often drops after book closures to reflect the fact that new investors in the stock would not qualify for the payment.
