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Data last updated: Oct 16, 2026
Snapshot (as of Oct 16, 2026): iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) pays a $2.15 annual dividend ($0.18 monthly), yielding 4.87% at $79.97/share. Source: Yahoo Finance, aggregated by MerryDiv.
Dividend Yield: 4.87%
Annual Dividend: $2.15 per share
Dividend Frequency: monthly
Years of Dividend History: 25
The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF dividend comes from a fund that holds publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities with remaining maturities greater than twenty years. TLT currently yields 5.0%, placing it firmly in high-yield territory for an ETF backed by government debt. The fund pays monthly, and trailing twelve-month payments totaled $2.1520 per share. That monthly income cadence, combined with the Treasury-only mandate, makes TLT a natural fit for income-focused investors who prioritize government-backed cash flow.
Assessing iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF dividend safety starts with understanding what drives payouts: the fund passes through interest income from U.S. Treasury securities with maturities exceeding twenty years, so distributions move with prevailing long-term interest rates, not corporate earnings. Payout ratio is not applicable (fund/ETF). The most data-supported pressure point is visible in the history table: annual dividends fell from $3.3158 in 2013 to $3.0728 in 2019, a multi-year slide that reflects how falling interest rates compress the income generated by the underlying Treasury holdings.
iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF dividend history shows a CAGR of 0.4% per year from 2009 to 2025. Per-share annual dividends moved from $3.6414 to $3.8605 over that window (2026 is a partial year and excluded from this calculation). The largest annual increase in the window was 25.8% in 2023, but the data block also flags at least one year-over-year decline exceeding 5%, confirming the path was far from linear. Growth is slow, and income investors should not expect TLT to compound its payout meaningfully over time.
| Period | CAGR | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Year | +13.3% | $2.66 (2022) | $3.86 (2025) |
| 5-Year | +10.3% | $2.37 (2020) | $3.86 (2025) |
| 10-Year | +2.1% | $3.15 (2015) | $3.86 (2025) |
TLT fits income-focused investors who want monthly cash flow backed by U.S. Treasury securities and can accept that the payout level shifts with long-term interest rates. The current yield is classified as high (above 4%), and the 5-year average yield is not available for direct comparison. What the data does show is a 0.4% annualized growth rate over sixteen years, which means the yield does the heavy lifting here, not dividend growth. The trade-off is straightforward: investors get a 5.0% yield from one of the most credit-secure asset classes available, but the payout has historically declined during periods of falling rates, and long-run growth is minimal.
| Payment Date | Amount per Share |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-01 | $0.3120 |
| 2026-09-01 | $0.3147 |
| 2026-08-03 | $0.3305 |
| 2026-07-01 | $0.3180 |
| 2026-06-01 | $0.3358 |
| 2026-05-01 | $0.3154 |
| 2026-04-01 | $0.3448 |
| 2026-03-02 | $0.3006 |
| 2026-02-02 | $0.3319 |
| 2025-12-19 | $0.3424 |
| Year | Total Dividends |
|---|---|
| 2026 | $2.9036 |
| 2025 | $3.8605 |
| 2024 | $3.7548 |
| 2023 | $3.3425 |
| 2022 | $2.6560 |
Project income from TLT with the TLT dividend calculator or track your full portfolio with the dividend tracker.