It seems Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)'s stint as a big four ASX bank was not to last. Much was made of Macquarie's (in hindsight, brief) ascension to the upper echelons of the ASX banking sector last year.
Back in November, Macquarie swept past Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ), becoming the ASX's fourth-largest bank by market capitalisation in the process. Then, just a few weeks ago, it did it again, pipping Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) for the third spot.
But, alas, Macquarie's fortunes have turned in the few weeks since then. Year to date, Macquarie shares have lost a painful 10.47% of their value. And since hitting a new record high of $217.32 a share on 5 January, the company is down by 15.4%. That's going off of today's pricing at $183.92 at the time of writing.
At this price, Macquarie is back to a market capitalisation of $70.55 billion. That means it is well and truly back to the ASX's fifth-largest bank, seeing as Westpac's market cap is today at $74.7 billion, and ANZ's at $75.6 billion.
Ah well, I'm sure it was fun for Macquarie while it lasted.
But that brings us to a different topic. That of Macquarie's dividend. Due to the steep share price drop the company has endured over the past month or so, its dividend yield has crept back up again. But is it big enough to rival those of Macquarie's larger banking rivals?
How does Macquarie's dividend measure up against the big four ASX banks?
Well, let's take a look.
So Macquarie paid out two dividends last year. The first was a final dividend of $3.35 a share that was paid out in July. The second was an interim dividend of $2.72 per share that investors received in December. Both payments were partially franked at 40%.
On today's pricing, that gives Macquarie shares a trailing dividend yield of 3.31%.
Unfortunately for income investors, that's not quite large enough to take out even one of the big four banks. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) currently has the lowest trailing yield out of the big four banks. But it's still offering investors a trailing, fully franked 3.72% yield right now.
National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) is next up with its trailing yield of 4.67%.
ANZ breaches the 5% mark with its yield of 5.28% on current pricing.
And Westpac leads the charge with its 5.79% trailing yield today.
So, unfortunately, Macquarie's dividends, while substantial, are still not quite in the leagues of the big four.
But, even so, with Macquarie's past 5-year performance giving investors a 120% return, it's probably not bothering investors too much.
