The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is having a nice start to the trading week today. BHP shares are up by 0.45%, at the time of writing, to $48.97 per share. That looks pretty good against the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which is rather flat so far today, having fallen by 0.11% to 7,287.7 points.
The share price puts BHP close to its all-time high of $51.82, which it reached early last month. BHP shares have been a spectacular performer for ASX 200 investors in recent years. The Big Australian is up almost 16% year to date, around 35% over the past 12 months, and more than 160% over the past 5 years.
But that doesn't even include the hefty returns investors have also enjoyed from BHP in the form of dividends. How much have these dividends been worth? And what can ASX investors expect from BHP in terms of income today?
BHP shares – Big Huge Payouts?
BHP's last dividend was paid out in March (on 23 March to be precise). This interim dividend came in at $1.31 per share, fully franked. Prior to that, BHP paid out a final dividend of 75.46 cents per share, also fully franked, back in September last year.
Those dividends were high by BHP's historical standards. The two dividends paid out prior to those two were an interim dividend of 99.4 cents per share and a final dividend of $1.14 per share, also both fully franked.
So these two most recent dividends amount to a collective $2.06 per share. That would give BHP shares a trailing dividend yield of 4.21% on current pricing. With full franking considered, this grosses up to 6.01%. That's arguably pretty solid for an ASX 200 share in this investing climate.
Where to next for BHP's dividend?
Since both the BHP share price and its raw dividend payouts are close (or at) historical highs, many investors might be wondering what's next for the mining giant. Well, one broker who thinks there is plenty left in the tank is investment bank Goldman Sachs.
According to CommSec, Goldman has BHP shares rated as a buy with a 12-month price target of $53.90 a share. It reckons BHP will manage to pay out US$2.52 ($3.21) in dividends by the end of FY2021 and US$2.58 ($3.34) in FY2022.
Talk about making it rain. That would imply BHP has a forward yield of 6.56% for FY2021 and 6.82% for FY2022, based on the current share price. I'm sure shareholders are hoping these forecast dividends indeed end up in bank accounts over the next year or two.
