Today is a good day to own ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) shares.
That's because later on Friday the big four bank will be rewarding its shareholders with a couple of dividends.
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What is ANZ paying out?
Last month, ANZ released its FY 2023 results and reported a 5% increase in operating income to $20,459 million and a 14% jump in cash earnings to a record of $7,405 million.
ANZ revealed that its institutional business was the key driver of this growth. It delivered a 53% increase in cash profit to $2,963 million for the 12 months. This was supported by a modest increase in New Zealand earnings, which offset softer earnings from the Australia Retail and Australia Commercial divisions.
In light of this strong performance, the ANZ board decided to increase its dividend in FY 2023.
It declared a 94 cents per share final dividend, which brought its full-year dividend to 175 cents per share. This represents a 20% increase on FY 2022's dividend.
Though, it is worth noting that part of this increase was to cushion the surprise blow of its dividend only being partially franked. Management noted that this reflects the geographically diverse nature of its business, as well as the timing of the proposed Suncorp Bank transaction.
ANZ's final dividend comprises an 81 cents per share dividend (partially franked at 65%) and an additional one-off unfranked dividend of 13 cents per share.
These dividends are being paid today to eligible shareholders (i.e. anyone who was on its share register before the ex-dividend date of 16 November).
Are ANZ shares in the buy zone?
Goldman Sachs continues to rate ANZ shares as a buy.
The broker currently has a buy rating and a $26.66 price target on the bank's shares.
While this only implies a potential upside of 3.3%, the total potential return stretches to approximately 9.5% if you include forecast dividends.
