APA Group (ASX: APA) is one of those fortunate ASX dividend shares that proved to be very good to investors over the past few years. That's because this company was one of the few ASX blue-chip shares that weren't forced to cut its payouts due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. We saw blue-chip shares like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC), National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB), Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) and Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) all slash their dividends between 2019 and 2021. But not the gas pipeline owner APA Group.
In fact, over 2020, APA managed to keep its dividend stream rising. It paid out a total of 45 cents per share in 2018 and 47 cents per share in 2019. But 2020 had investors receive 50 cents per share. And last year witnessed 51 cents per share hit investors' pockets. So if you were living under a rock, funded only by APA's dividends, you wouldn't even know there had been a pandemic.
So with this venerable dividend record exposed, what might the future hold for APA and its dividends? Will 2022 see this ever-rising trend continue?
What kind of dividends will APA shares pay out in 2022?
Well, as it turns out, we do have some idea of what 2022 has in store for investors on the income front. Last month, the company announced that it is intending to pay a FY2022 interim distribution of 25 cents per share. This will be doled out on 17 March. As the company highlighted, that would represent a 4.2% increase on FY2021's interim payment.
But wait, there's more. APA also reaffirmed that it is intending to pay out a total of 53 cents per share for the 2022 financial year. That implies that, on top of this 25 cents per share interim dividend, APA will also pay a final dividend (presumably in September) of 28 cents per share. That would be a 3.7% rise from 2021's final dividend.
If APA does indeed send this amount to investors this year, it would mean that the APA share price, at the current level of $9.88 (at the time of writing), offers a forward dividend yield of 5.36%. Food for thought.
