In respect to dividends, the Australian share market is one of the most generous in the world with an average dividend yield of 4%.
As a comparison, over on Wall Street the S&P 500 has an average dividend yield of just 1.9% according to Multipl.
But with so many quality options to choose from it can be hard to decide which ones to buy.
To narrow things down I've have picked out three of my favourite dividend shares that I believe are in the buy zone today. They are as follows:
Dicker Data Ltd (ASX: DDR)
I think Dicker Data is one of the best dividend shares on offer on the Australian share market right now. Fresh from delivering a full year result that smashed expectations, the wholesale distributor of computer hardware and software has just released positive guidance for FY 2019. It expects to achieve group revenue of $1.65 billion and net profit before tax of $51.4 million, which will be a 10% lift on both the top and bottom lines. Furthermore, management expects to pay a full year dividend of 22 cents per share in quarterly instalments this year, which equates to a forward fully franked 6% yield.
National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR)
National Storage is Australasia's largest self-storage owner-operator with a network of 146 centres and a growing pipeline of acquisition and development opportunities. Last month the trust released its interim results and revealed a 13% increase in first half revenue to $72.8 million and a 22% lift in operating profit to $42.2 million. This was driven by solid demand for its services and the continued success of its growth through acquisition strategy. In FY 2019 National Storage intends to pay a full year distribution of 9.6 cents to 9.9 cents per unit, which equates to a yield of between 5.4% to 5.6%.
Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF)
Rural Funds is a real estate property trust which owns a total of 49 properties across six agricultural sectors and multiple climactic zones. At the last count the trust's properties had a weighted average lease expiry of 11.4 years. I believe these long leases, its high quality tenants, and rental indexation have positioned the trust perfectly to achieve its target of distribution growth of at least 4% each year for the foreseeable future. In FY 2019 Rural Funds intends to pay a total distribution of 10.85 cents per unit, which equates to a yield of 4.8% at present.
