AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP) shares are one of the most interesting investments on the ASX. This storied Australian company has a long and controversial history, making the journey from respected blue chip stock to penny stock (and arguably laughing stock), to middling ASX share.
When it first joined the ASX boards in 1997, AMP quickly established itself as a robust dividend payer. But years of scandals and mismanagement in the 2010s saw AMP shares reduced to a rump of what they once were.
To give you an idea of how much this company fell to earth, consider this. In June 2001, AMP was trading at more than $14.50 a share. But late last year, those same shares hit an all-time low of just 86 cents.
Since that low, AMP shares have recovered a little. At the time of writing, they are going for $1.11 each, up almost 30% from that record low.
At the current share price, AMP is trading on a seemingly solid dividend yield of 4.05%. That yield comes from the company's last two dividend payments: the interim dividend of 2.5 cents per share, paid out last September, and the final dividend of 2 cents per share, which we saw in April.
That final dividend might have come as something of a disappointment, seeing as 2023's final dividend was worth 2.5 cents per share. But investors have arguably been lucky to get any income at all, considering AMP shares paid out no dividends whatsoever between March 2019 and April 2023.
Even so, longer-term investors might be thinking wistfully of the past. To illustrate why, remember that in 2018, AMP shares forked out a total of 24.5 cents per share in dividend income.
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Do the dividends from AMP shares come with full franking credits?
But let's get down to the crux of today's article: do AMP shares come fully franked?
Well, in a word, no. AMP has never consistently paid out fully franked dividends, even back in the its heyday.
Some of its past dividends have been partially franked up to 90%, but we haven't seen a fully franked AMP dividend for at least two decades.
Over the past year, AMP investors haven't enjoyed much in the way of franking credits from their dividends. Both the September interim dividend and the April final dividend that AMP paid out over the past 12 months came partially franked at 20%.
Given this company's franking history, I wouldn't be holding my breath for a franked dividend anytime soon, either. At least AMP investors still have a decent 4.05% yield to enjoy today. Not to mention the company's significant share buybacks that investors have been benefitting from in recent months.
