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There are a whole lot of dividend shares to select from on the UK inventory market. And whilst shares hit report highs this 12 months, they nonetheless provide hefty yields.
A number of the most beneficiant individuals at the moment are victrex (LSE:VCT) and Hansard World (LSE:HSD) shares and dividends are 9.75% and 9.31% respectively. This implies buyers can now earn as much as £97.50 in passive revenue for each £1,000 they spend.
However as any skilled investor is aware of, excessive yields usually include loads of danger. It may even be a warning sign {that a} dividend minimize is coming. The query then is, can Victrex and Hansard keep their present dividends? Let’s discover.
Revenue from polymers
Beginning with Victrex, the high-performance polymer maker has fallen on laborious instances in 2025, with its market capitalization shrinking by about 43% since January.
Digging deeper, this downward trajectory is considerably justified. Cyclical headwinds have weakened demand for specialty merchandise, particularly in high-margin sectors resembling healthcare. Though market situations are beginning to enhance, revenue margins stay difficult resulting from an unfavorable product combine.
Clearly, this isn’t excellent news for investor sentiment. And the influence will solely be compounded by operational errors in ramping up manufacturing at new manufacturing crops in China.
Regardless of these challenges, shareholders proceed to obtain dividends, and dividends per share are decrease than underlying earnings per share. That is an encouraging signal of sustainability. And with China challenges beginning to resolve and additional polymer quantity development supported by a wholesome stability sheet, the corporate might be nearing the start of a good restoration.
Revenue from particular financial savings
Subsequent, we have a look at Hansard World, which gives specialist long-term financial savings and funding merchandise and is doing significantly better than Victrex in 2025. Though it nonetheless lags the broader inventory market, the corporate’s inventory value, together with its dividend, has remained comparatively secure.
However, its primary efficiency is a bit blended. Between June 2024 and June this 12 months, its belongings below administration fell barely from £1.15bn to £1.13bn. Profitability additionally suffered, not helped by ongoing authorized protection prices associated to the now-closed Hansard Europe enterprise.
However on the similar time, outcomes from new clients and enterprise have really elevated, rising from £77.8m to £82.4m. Moreover, the corporate’s solvency ratio has improved, demonstrating monetary energy and permitting it extra flexibility to proceed to keep up shareholder dividends.
conclusion
For each of those dividend shares, analysts anticipate the dividends to be maintained within the close to time period. Nevertheless, if dividend protection margins are shrinking and earnings development slows resulting from extended mushy market situations, the corporate may in the end be compelled to chop manufacturing sooner or later.
In my view, Victrex appears to be within the stronger place of those two companies. Subsequently, for buyers searching for a possible high-yield passive revenue alternative, this enterprise could also be value additional investigation. However there are different extra promising dividend shares that I am presently watching.