There are surprisingly few ASX shares that have a record of dividend increases that is longer than a few years. This is especially the case in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Between 2019 and today, there are only a select few ASX shares that have dialled up their shareholder payments annually. Any of the big banks? Nope. Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW)? Sadly not. Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)? Its divined has been a flat 16 cents per share for years.
BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) may have doled out monster dividends last year, but its income track record is bumpier than an outback road.
So then you would think that finding a company that has given investors an annual dividend pay rise every year for almost two decades is harder to find than an egg-laying rooster.
But they are out there. And APA Group (ASX: APA) is one of them.
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Why APA shares are ASX dividend royalty
Yes, APA has been paying its investors a rising dividend every financial year since FY2004. Back then, investors received a total of 21.5 cents per share. In FY2021, APA shareholders received 51 cents per share in dividend payments. That came after 50 cents per share in FY2020 and 47 cents per share in FY2019. The growth from 21.5 cents per share to 51 cents per share equates to a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.92% per annum, which handily outperforms inflation over that period.
Now, of course, APA isn't the only ASX share with those kinds of dividend bonafides.
Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW) has been paying a consistent dividend for more than 45 years, although it hasn't always risen every year. In saying that, the company has raised its dividend every year since 2014.
Before 2020, Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC) had given its investors a dividend increase every year since 2000. Unfortunately, the pandemic put an end to that streak for 2020. However, the company did return its dividend payments to 2019 levels in 2021.
But Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co Ltd (ASX: SOL) is the undisputed dividend king of the ASX. It has paid a rising dividend every single year since 2000, with no interruptions whatsoever over the 'COVID era'.
So APA might not yet be at that dividend share calibre. But it certainly still has a dividend record that is amongst the best the ASX can offer.
At the current APA share price, the company has a trailing dividend yield of 5.02%.
