The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a pretty decent day of gains so far this Thursday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is up a very healthy 0.96% to 7,342 points. One ASX 200 share that isn't joining the party though is the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price.
ANZ shares are presently trading at $27.72 each, down 0.22% for the day so far. It's not just ANZ though. Another big four ASX banking share is also in the red today. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) is currently down 0.59% to $102.61 a share.
But it appears to be an even split, given both National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) are both in the green so far today.
ANZ also happens to currently be the worst-performing ASX bank share in 2021 out of the big four. It's up 20% year to date. That compares to CBA's 22%, NAB's 25%, and Westpac's 30%.
However, this situation has also resulted in ANZ offering up the largest dividend yield out of the big four right now.
What are ANZ shares offering in terms of dividends today?
On current pricing, CBA shares are worth a dividend yield of 3.4%. NAB is putting up 3.14%, while Westpac has 3.49% on the table. But ANZ shares currently have a dividend yield of 3.79%. That's fully franked too, as are the other banks' payouts.
This dividend yield, which grosses-up to 5.41% with said full franking, comes from ANZ's past two dividend payments. These were a July interim payment of 70 cents per share, and a final dividend payment of 35 cents per share that ANZ forked out in December last year.
Just for some food for thought, if ANZ pays out another 70 cents per share final dividend this year, it will offer a forward dividend yield of 5.05%.
So now that we've established ANZ as offering the best big four banking dividend yield today, where to next for ANZ shares?
Could this ASX bank be a buy right now?
One broker who thinks this bank is hot right now is Morgans. As my Fool colleague Tristan covered earlier this week, Morgans reckons ANZ shares could hit $34.50 each by Christmas. That implies an upside of almost 25% on today's pricing.
Morgans simply estimates ANZ shares offer compelling value at their current level. The broker is eyeing the bank's cost-cutting programs, as well as the quality of its loan books, and clearly likes what it sees.
At the current ANZ share price, this ASX bank has a market capitalisation of $78.8 billion and a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 16.77.
