As one of the famous big four ASX bank shares, investors have come to expect a lot out of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) when it comes to dividends and franking credits. The banks are perhaps the most famous dividend-paying shares on the ASX. That reputation has been honed by decades of strong and fully franked yields that have flowed out of ANZ shares, as well as the other banks like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA).
But, as many banking investors would remember, 2020 was a horrid year for ASX banks. Not only did the big four, including ANZ, experience nasty share price drops. But that year also saw dividends from the ASX banking sector all but dry up – largely thanks to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Take ANZ. It managed to fork out $1.60 in dividends per share in 2019. But only 60 cents per share made its way into investors' bank accounts in 2020.
Fortunately, this drought didn't last much longer than a year. Last year in 2021, we saw ANZ boost its dividends dramatically. May saw an interim dividend of 70 cents per share doled out to investors. While November recorded ANZ's final dividend of 72 cents per share. That's a 2021 total of $1.42 in dividends per share. Not quite back to the glory days of yore. But certainly a large improvement on 2020's dismal payouts.
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What kinds of dividends will the ANZ share price yield in 2022 and beyond?
So now that we've put 2021 behind us, what might ANZ have up its sleeve for income investors in 2022? Well, of course, we don't yet know for sure. But, we can have a listen to what one ASX broker is predicting.
As my Fool colleague James covered earlier this week, broker Morgans is currently bullish on ANZ shares, partly due to an expectation of higher dividends going forward. Morgans has rated ANZ as an 'add', with a 12-month share price target of $31. That implies a potential future 12-month upside of around 9% on current pricing.
This broker reckons ANZ will pay out a total of $1.47 in fully franked dividends per share in FY2022. As well as $1.64 per share, also fully franked, in FY2023. The latter would exceed ANZ's 2019 dividend, and as such would be presumably very welcome to shareholders if it came to pass. A $1.61 per share payout would give the ANZ share price a forward yield of roughly 5.66% on current pricing. So there you have it. At least one broker is expecting dividend rises from ANZ in 2022 and into 2023.
As it stands today, ANZ shares currently have a market capitalisation of $80.08 billion, with a trailing dividend yield of 4.99%.
