Before the US tariff policy changes enacted by the White House in April 2025, investors saw dividends as a stable source of income. In December 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), analysts forecast that dividend paying companies would be a stable investment because of uncertain sentiment around the US economy and stock market, as well as the overvaluation of tech stocks. In the same WSJ article, Bank of America analysts predicted total dividend payments for S&P 500 companies would increase about 10% in 2025, driven by investors wanting cash.

In actuality, cumulative dividend payouts for the S&P 500 increased 5.5% in 2025, according to the S&P Dow Jones Indices, a division of S&P Global. S&P Global reported that the increase was mainly due to the White House’s change in tariff policies in April 2025, as well as companies affected by lower consumer spending, inflation, and other factors. Although 2,293 S&P 500 firms increased their dividend payments in 2025, this was a 6.4% decrease from 2024. Simultaneously, 172 S&P 500 companies decreased their dividend payments, a 33.3% increase from 2024.

Although tariff-related headwinds negatively affected companies in the laboratory tools industry, major companies that regularly distribute dividends did not let the deterrent disrupt their payment schedules. In fact, a select group of major players in the lab tools market increased dividend payments amid the economic disruptions.

This blog highlights seven leading laboratory tool companies and their regular dividend payments. The companies are Agilent Technologies, Bio-Techne, Bruker, Danaher, QIAGEN, Revvity, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Here we present the seven companies’ dividend payment schedules in CY25 and the first half of CY26. Although Agilent and Bio-Techne’s annual fiscal reporting periods ended October 31, 2025, and June 30, 2025, respectively, we present their dividend information on a CY basis unless otherwise noted.

Agilent Technologies

Between 2025 and the first half of 2026, Agilent continued the trend of increasing its dividend payment every fourth quarter. Agilent has maintained this recurring once-per-CY dividend-increase tradition since fourth quarter 2011.

In CY fourth quarter 2024, Agilent increased its quarterly dividend from $0.236 per share to $0.248 per share, resulting in a 5.1% increase. Furthermore, Agilent increased its fiscal 2025 dividend from $0.248 per share to $0.255 per share in the CY fourth quarter of 2025, a 2.8% increase. In total, the company has paid approximately $427 million in dividends between 2025 and first-half 2026.

Sales-wise, Agilent posted mid-single-digit sales growth in fiscal 2025, driven by strong demand for its analytical lab tools and GLP-1 businesses, as well as PFAS testing applications in the environmental and forensics end-market. In the first half of fiscal 2026, underlying sales growth trends included AI infrastructure and semiconductor-related applications, which drove Agilent’s chemical and advanced materials market sales. Additionally, the company’s Advanced Therapeutics and GLP-1 businesses drove sales.  

When announcing its fiscal first quarter 2026 financials on February 25, Agilent highlighted its capital allocation priorities, which are R&D, M&A, and operational expansion, and that excess capital after those uses will go to dividend payouts and repurchasing shares.  

Danaher

Danaher has continued its pattern of increasing its quarterly dividend at the start of the first quarter of each CY. In 2025, Danaher’s quarterly dividend was $0.32 per share, an 18.5% increase from its 2024 dividend of $0.27 per share. By comparison, in 2024, it increased its quarterly dividend from $0.27 per share to $0.32 per share, an 18.5% increase.

In the first quarter of 2026, the company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.40 per share, a 25.0% increase. Between 2025 and first-half 2026, Danaher has paid about $1.4 billion in dividends and, except in the first quarter of 2025, posted single-digit sales growth each quarter.

The company noted its Biotechnology division’s consumables products as a steady source of sales growth in both CYs, while the division’s instrument sales were more volatile in 2025 but stabilized in 2026. Danaher’s Life Sciences sales tumbled throughout 2025 because of market dynamics in the US academic and government market and falling genomics consumables sales. However, in the second quarter 2026, Danaher’s Life Sciences division began posting growth, partly thanks to its semiconductor filtration business.  

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Like Danaher, Thermo Fisher has maintained its habit of paying a dividend to shareholders and increasing it every CY. Thermo Fisher’s 2025 dividend was $0.43 per share, a 10.3% increase from its 2024 dividend of $0.39 per share. The company incrementally increased its quarterly dividend by 9.3% in the first quarter of 2026 to $0.47 per share. Thus, Thermo Fisher has paid about $935 million in dividends between 2025 and the first half of 2026.

Except for flat sales in the first quarter of 2025, Thermo Fisher has posted sales growth in each quarter. Underlying sales growth during this period came from the bioproduction business in the Life Sciences Solutions division, as well as in Lab Products & Biopharma Services. Conversely, Analytical Instruments unit sales were volatile throughout 2025 and the first half of 2026 due to deterrents such as changes in US tariff policies and capital expenditure constraints in the US academic and government market.

QIAGEN

In the first quarter of 2025, QIAGEN announced that, for the first time, it would pay an annual dividend, which the company described as a long-term strategy to broaden its investor base. Consequently, the company paid out a dividend of $0.26 per share in the second quarter of 2025. Only a year later, QIAGEN raised its annual dividend by 34.6% to $0.35 per share. So far, the company has paid $126.5 million in dividends between the two annual dividend payouts.

Bio-Techne, Bruker, and Revvity

Like most of their peers, Bio-Techne, Bruker, and Revvity have distributed quarterly dividends in CY25 and the first six months of CY26. However, all three firms provided consistent payouts with no increases or decreases during this period. Specifically, Bio-Techne, Bruker, and Revvity distributed dividends of $0.08 per share, $0.05 per share, and $0.07 per share, respectively, throughout 2025 and the first half of 2026.

Conclusion

The seven laboratory tool companies highlighted here paid consistent, or even increasing, quarterly dividends in 2025 and the first half of 2026, despite macroeconomic challenges such as tariffs and industry-specific ones such as funding constraints in the US academic and government market and volatility in China. As a result, major lab tool companies maintained course even during uncertain times.