The Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) share price has travelled 20% higher over the past year. This comes as the private health insurance giant has enjoyed improved trading conditions within the industry.
This morning, Medibank shares were touching a new 52-week high of $3.45, up 1.17%. However, they have partially retreated are now trading hands at $3.42, a gain of 0.29% on yesterday's closing price.
Why is the Medibank share price pushing higher?
Investors are pushing up the Medibank share price despite no news coming from the company since its last release in late June.
According to the update, Medibank returned roughly $105 million in COVID-19 savings to customers through premium relief. The latest financial support package has boosted the company's reputation in becoming socially responsible.
Medibank CEO David Koczkar commented:
We said right from the start of the pandemic that we would not profit from COVID-19, and that we were committed to returning any COVID-19 savings back to our customers because it is the right thing to do. And today's announcement shows that we have done what we said we would.
The Medibank share price jumped into the green on the news.
Furthermore, Medibank advised that the give-back program is not expected to impact its operating earnings for the 2021 financial year.
One broker who retained its outperform rating was leading financial services company, Credit Suisse. The agency raised its price target for Medibank shares to $3.50 on the back of increased earnings estimates for FY21.
How much is Medibank forecasted to pay in dividends?
With the company scheduled to report its full-year results on 25 August, investors may be wondering about the dividend payments.
Medibank paid a fully franked dividend of 5.8 cents in March for H1 FY21, slightly below the 6.3 cents in the prior period.
However, Credit Suisse is forecasting a total FY21 dividend payment of 13 cents, implying a 7.2 cents per share dividend payment. This would give Medibank a current dividend yield of 3.76%. Not a bad return when including the strong Medibank share price rise.
