With this earnings season all but wrapped up, it's probably a good time to survey the spoils and dig deeper into what the ASX's most-watched shares have given investors.
For a large chunk of the investing community, all eyes were undoubtedly on what kind of dividend payments will be arriving in the metaphorical mailbox in coming weeks.
Since we saw some dramatic dividend announcements indeed over the past month or so, let's check out the ASX dividend shares that have delivered the biggest payout increases this earnings season.
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BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP)
BHP made headlines with its monster dividend announcement when it reported its earnings back on 15 February.
Most investors expected another hefty interim dividend from BHP after the rebound in iron ore prices we have seen over the past few months. But it's probably fairly safe to say not too many investors were anticipating the largest interim dividend in BHP's history.
The miner announced a whopping payout of US$1.50 per share, fully franked. As my Fool colleague covered at the time, broker Goldman Sachs was expecting a dividend worth US$1.27, so this one was a very pleasant surprise for income investors. At today's pricing, BHP shares offer an eye-popping dividend yield of 10.62%
Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO)
BHP's resources rival Rio also impressed with its own dividend announcement when this miner delivered its earnings report last week. Rio announced a record final dividend of US$4.17 a share that will be distributed to investors in April. On top of that, shareholders will also receive a special dividend worth 62 US cents per share at the same time.
That takes Rio's full-year dividends to US$10.40 per share, including last year's interim dividend of US$2.76 per share and the accompanying special payout of US$1.85. On the latest pricing, Rio shares now have a dividend yield of 9.26%.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA)
It might be remiss to mention ASX dividends without including at least one ASX bank share. CBA was one of the first ASX blue-chip shares to report this earnings season when it dropped its results on 9 February.
And income investors weren't disappointed. CBA announced an interim dividend of $1.75 per share. Fully franked of course. This payment will be sent out on 30 March. The $1.75 per share payment is a 17% increase from last year's interim payout of $1.50 per share.
However, this one was far from being a record high payment for Commbank. Its March 2020 interim dividend of $2 per share. However, CBA also complemented this dividend with the announcement of a $2 billion on-market share buyback program. At the current pricing, CBA shares have a dividend yield of 4%.
