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Data last updated: Oct 17, 2026
Snapshot (as of Oct 17, 2026): Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) pays a $5.00 annual dividend ($1.50 quarterly), yielding 2.14% at $277.68/share. Next ex-dividend date 2026-09-17. Source: Yahoo Finance, aggregated by MerryDiv.
Dividend Yield: 2.14%
Annual Dividend: $5.00 per share
Payout Ratio: 30.9%
Ex-Dividend Date: 2026-09-17
Dividend Frequency: quarterly
Sector: Consumer Cyclical
Years of Dividend History: 29
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. dividend currently yields 2.17%, backed by one of the largest cruise operators in the world. The company runs brands including Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises, serving roughly 1,000 destinations with a fleet of 61 vessels. RCL pays dividends quarterly, with the last payment at $1.50 per share and the next ex-dividend date set for September 17, 2026. At a beta of 1.75, this is a cyclical stock, and income investors should expect price swings that come with the travel sector.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. pays out 13.4% of earnings as dividends, a payout ratio classified as conservative (below 40%). That low figure means the current $5.50 annual dividend consumes a small fraction of earnings, leaving substantial room before any pressure on Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. dividend safety would arise. The most significant data-supported risk is the company's position in Consumer Cyclical travel services, a sector where demand, and therefore earnings, can drop sharply, as the history table shows with a steep decline in payments during 2020.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. dividend history shows a CAGR of 8.6% per year from 2002 to 2025. Per-share payments grew from $0.52 to $3.50 over that span (2026 is a partial year and excluded from the rate calculation). The largest annual increase in the window was 68.2% in 2013, though the history also contains at least one year-over-year decline exceeding 5%, so growth has not been linear.
| Period | CAGR | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Year | +5.7% | $2.96 (2019) | $3.50 (2025) |
| 5-Year | +10.1% | $2.16 (2017) | $3.50 (2025) |
| 10-Year | +23.0% | $0.44 (2012) | $3.50 (2025) |
RCL stock fits dividend investors who want meaningful income from a global travel business and can tolerate cyclical volatility. The yield sits in the moderate (2–4%) range at 2.17%, and the 13.4% payout ratio means the dividend is not stretched. Two consecutive years of increases after the pandemic-era interruption show a rebuilding pattern, but the streak is short. What an investor gets here is a low-payout, moderately yielding dividend from a large cruise operator. The trade-off is a high beta of 1.75, meaning the stock price moves sharply with economic sentiment, which can overshadow the income component during downturns.
| Payment Date | Amount per Share |
|---|---|
| 2026-09-17 | $1.5000 |
| 2026-06-03 | $1.5000 |
| 2026-03-06 | $1.5000 |
| 2025-12-26 | $1.0000 |
| 2025-09-25 | $1.0000 |
| 2025-06-04 | $0.7500 |
| 2025-03-07 | $0.7500 |
| 2024-12-27 | $0.5500 |
| 2024-09-20 | $0.4000 |
| 2020-03-05 | $0.7800 |
| Year | Total Dividends |
|---|---|
| 2026 | $4.5000 |
| 2025 | $3.5000 |
| 2024 | $0.9500 |
| 2020 | $0.7800 |
| 2019 | $2.9600 |
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