Informa's (LSE:INF) trailing Payout Ratio of nearly 130% looks alarming at first glance, but the company is still raising its Dividend and has enlarged its share buyback. The explanation lies largely in the difference between statutory and adjusted earnings. The dividend figures here come from a data snapshot dated 7 October 2026, and the most recent company results were published on 30 July.

The dividend in numbers

The snapshot shows an annual dividend of 22p per share and a latest interim payment of 7.48p. The trailing 12-month Yield is 2.6%, and the indicated yield is 2.5%. Year-on-year dividend growth is a healthy 10.0%.

The record is short. Informa has only four years of continuous payments and three years of continuous growth, suggesting it stopped paying and then rebuilt the dividend from a fresh base. Informa's fast recent growth therefore partly reflects recovery, and holders should not read four years as anything like the long records of some FTSE 100 peers. The interim itself rose 6.9%, from 7.00p, which is rather slower than the annual growth rate in the data.

Reading a payout above 100%

The trailing payout ratio of 129.5% means that dividends exceeded Earnings per share over the measured period on the data's basis. Sustained, that would normally raise a question about whether a dividend can be maintained. For Informa the figure needs to be read with some care.

Statutory profit has swung sharply. In the first half of 2026, pretax profit was £232m, against a loss of £254.2m a year before. A trailing calculation that takes in such a loss will yield a very high ratio, even when the underlying Business is profitable. Adjusted diluted Earnings Per Share were 26.6p for the first half alone, which is more than three times the 7.48p interim dividend.

That said, adjusted earnings are not a perfect substitute. They exclude costs that are real for shareholders, and cash is often a better test. Free Cash Flow in the first half was £283.9m, down from £356.9m a year earlier, which is a change worth monitoring, although half-year cash flows at an events business can reflect timing. Cash is also being directed towards Buybacks as well as to the dividend.

First-half performance

Revenue rose 1.4% to £2.06bn, or 5.1% on an underlying basis. Adjusted operating profit fell 5.3% to £548.3m, though it grew 2.4% on an underlying basis, and the Margin narrowed to 26.6% from 28.4%. Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share fell 11% from 29.8p, so the reported and underlying pictures do differ noticeably.

Informa (LSE:INF) reaffirmed its 2026 guidance for underlying Revenue growth of about 6% and double-digit underlying growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share. It also lifted its planned buyback to £350m from £250m, a clear signal of where the board sees value in its Capital allocation. The shares rose 1.9% to 922.2p on the day.

What to watch

Investors should look out for the next statement from the company after the July results. The main test is whether the second half can deliver the acceleration implied by the reaffirmed guidance. Double-digit underlying earnings growth for the year would need a noticeably better performance after a reported 11% fall in the first half.

Other useful signals include free cash flow for the full year, progress on the £350m buyback and the operating margin. The payout ratio should also fall if statutory earnings normalise and last year's loss drops out of the trailing calculation, so a reading below 100% would be an important confirmation. The final dividend will indicate whether the three-year growth streak extends to four, and at what pace.