Ever since Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) shares were first wrested from government hands and privatised back in 2014, investors have been anticipating hefty dividend income from this health insurance giant.
Those investors haven't been disappointed. Medibank has paid out remarkably consistent dividend payments since its ASX debut. That's despite the Medibank share price itself delivering fairly lacklustre growth in recent years.
Sure, today the company is around 70% above the ~$2.20 share price it hit the ASX boards at back in late 2014. But Medibank shares have only appreciated by around 9.3% over the past five years.
Have a look at the Medibank share price's recent (and not so recent, if you wish) performance for yourself below:
But let's get down to Medibank's dividends.
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What's the current dividend yield on Medibank shares?
The ASX 200 health insurance provider has paid out two dividends every year since 2015. Over the past 12 months, Medibank has doled out a final dividend worth 8.3 cents per share (back in October 2023) and an interim dividend (March) of 7.2 cents per share. Both dividend payments came with full franking credits attached, as is the norm for Medibank stock.
That's an annual total of 15.5 cents per share. Plugging that into the current Medibank stock price of $3.71 (at the time of writing), we get a trailing dividend yield of 4.18%. If we include the value of Medibank's full franking credits, this yield grosses up to 5.97%.
As we touched on before, Medibank's dividends have been on a generally upward trajectory ever since the company's ASX listing. Back in 2016, Medibank funded an annual total of 11 cents per share in dividend payments. But over 2023, the company forked out a total of 14.3 cents per share in payouts.
Medibank has also increased its annual dividend every year since 2020. That year saw shareholders receive 12 cents per share in dividends. But 2021 had Medibank fork out 12.7 cents per share, rising to 13.4 cents in 2022 and to 14.3 cents by 2023.
What about the future?
The interim dividend of 7.2 cents per share from March this year was a hefty rise over 2023's equivalent payout of 6.3 cents. So it looks as though this streak of delivering consistently rising dividends is set to continue this year.
That's a belief held by one ASX expert, anyway. As my Fool colleague James covered earlier this month, ASX broker Goldman Sachs is predicting Medibank will pay out a total of 16 cents per share in dividend income over FY2024, rising to 17 cents per share in FY2025.
If Goldman is on the money here, investors can expect a forward yield from Medibank stock of 4.19% and 4.6%, respectively.
Let's see if Goldman is on the money and Medibank shareholders continue to enjoy a rising dividend yield.
