Income investors seem to naturally gravitate to the largest stocks in the ASX when it comes to dividends.
The usual suspects, including Australia's big four banks, are often high on the list of income plays.
But investors may have overlooked these top two dividend stocks boasting lovely dividends.
Air New Zealand or Air N.Z. FPO NZ (ASX: AIZ)
It's not often that you'll hear me spruik an airline stock as an investment, but Air NZ could be just the ticket with its monster dividend. Paying 20 NZ cents last financial year equates to around 18 AU cents, which at the current share price of $1.69 is a whopping dividend yield of 10.7%. Not only that but Air NZ also paid a special dividend of 25 NZ cents per share.
Air NZ has forecast a fall in earnings before taxation in the 2017 financial year to between NZ$400 and NZ$600 million compared to NZ$806 million (adjusted) last financial year. But the airline has plenty of room to maintain dividends at the current level too and potential to turn around the 40% fall in the share price since the start of this year.
Lifehealthcare Group Ltd (ASX: LHC)
The medical equipment and product distributor saw underlying net profit rise 95% in the 2016 financial year. From earnings per share of 20.8 cents, Lifehealthcare paid out 12.5 cents in dividends – which represents a yield of 6.5% unfranked. Revenues are likely to grow this financial year in the mid to high single digits from new acquisitions as well as the introduction of new products and additional surgeons using the company's products.
The company should also benefit from the tailwinds of an ageing population, rising chronic care requirements and surgical procedure growth over the long term, despite short-term disruptions due to factors like government reforms to funding. Investors are also being offered a stock with a cheap price – currently trading on a P/E of ~10.4x.
