The Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) share price has been a bit of a muted performer of late. It's lost close to 6.6% so far in 2022 but remains up 4.4% over the past 12 months. This ASX 200 share has escaped some of the volatility that the broader markets have seen this week, having lost 2.3% over the past five trading days. In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down more than 3% over the same period.
Treasury reported its earnings for the half-year ending 31 December 2021 last week. While it contained a mixed bag of results, income investors were likely pleased that the company maintained its interim dividend at 15 cents per share, fully franked. That's the same interim dividend that investors received last year.
Looking back at Treasury's history of paying dividends, it arguably has a fairly strong record in this department. So let's dig in.
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What does the dividend history of Treasury shares look like?
This interim dividend brings the total amount paid out over the past year to 28 cents per share. As it happens, that was also the total amount that investors received in 2020.
However, unlike the 13 and 15 cents per share payouts that shareholders received in 2021, the 2020 payments consisted of an interim dividend of 20 cents and a final dividend of 8 cents.
But all of these 28 cent annual payments pale in comparison to what Treasury doled out in 2019.
In Treasury's last pre-pandemic full year, investors received dividends worth 38 cents per share. That was the culmination of a streak of annual dividend increases that Treasury gave investors stretching back to 2014. Back then, the company's annual dividend was worth just 13 cents per share. That means that, between 2014 and 2019, Treasury grew its annual dividend by almost 200%.
Now, obviously, things have gotten a little off track for the company since then. Treasury has not only had to navigate the effects of the pandemic but also the sharp deterioration in diplomatic relations between Australia and China.
China was a potent growth market for Treasury. Thus, the restrictions that the Chinese Communist Party has placed on Australian exports (including wine) have been hurting Treasury in recent years.
But it can't be denied that this company's long-term dividend history has been very kind to investors. No doubt Treasury shareholders will hope that the company's final dividend later this year will restart Treasury's dividend growth streak.
Treasury shares are swapping hands at $11.64 today, which gives Treasury a trailing dividend yield of 2.4%.
