With an average dividend yield of approximately 4%, there certainly is a lot of choice for income investors on the Australian share market.
But with so much choice it can be hard to decide which ones to buy. To narrow things down I've picked out three dividend shares that brokers have just named as buys:
Hotel Property Investments Ltd (ASX: HPI)
Analysts at Deutsche Bank have initiated coverage on the hotel owner and landlord with a buy rating and $3.44 price target after Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) and Australian Venue Co formed a joint venture which related to the vast majority of its portfolio. Deutsche appears to believe the joint venture is a positive and sees value in Hotel Property Investments' gaming and liquor license. The company's shares currently offer a trailing 6% dividend.
Scentre Group (ASX: SCG)
A note out of Goldman Sachs reveals that its analysts have a buy rating and $4.71 price target on the shares of the Westfield shopping centre operator. According to the note, the broker believes that the market has priced in a sharp reduction in the carrying values of Scentre's mall portfolio. However, it believes this has left it materially undervalued, both in absolute terms and relative to its industry peers. So with its shares trading at 0.89x NTA and offering an estimated forward 5.7% dividend yield, Goldman believes Scentre's shares are in the buy zone today.
Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX: SGR)
According to a note out of Credit Suisse, its analysts have upgraded this casino and resort operator's shares to an outperform rating from neutral and lifted the price target on them to $5.50. With Star Entertainment's shares down 20% over the last 12 months, Credit Suisse believes its shares are cheap and expects investor sentiment to improve in the near future and lead to a re-rating. The broker expects Star Entertainment to pay a dividend of 21 cents per share in FY 2019 and then 22 cents in FY 2020. This works out to be a 4.8% and 5% yield, respectively, based on its current share price.
