BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares are in focus after the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) miner topped the list of highest paying dividend stocks in the world in 2021.
That's according to data from Janus Henderson.
The Motley Fool covered off 2 other ASX 200 shares that made the top 10 dividend payer list earlier today. You can find that here.
With BHP shares coming in at number 1, Blake Henricks, deputy managing director at Firetrail, and Michelle Lopez, Head of Australian Equities at abrdn, offer their views on the miner, courtesy of Live Wire.
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What's not to like?
At the current share price, BHP pays a trailing dividend yield of 9.8%.
Now that doesn't make BHP the highest yielding share on Earth in 2021. However, the total dividend payouts by the company in dollar terms were unmatched.
Asked whether BHP shares were a buy or hold, Lopez said:
It's a buy for us. And, yes, it's got to 9% and even a 6% yield going forward as commodity prices come back a little bit, which is our expectation. But clearly, we've got a very constructive outlook from a demand perspective.
Even with her outlook of iron ore and commodity prices retracing from the current high levels, Lopez pointed out, "We've got China, expectations of stimulus coming through. We're starting to see the property market over there pick up again, and infrastructure."
Lopez also likes the miner's cash flows.
"I think the near term is very well supported from a cash flow perspective," she said. "And from valuation perspective, it's trading close to its NAV [net asset value]."
For Henricks, BHP shares are a hold. He said "there are some better opportunities out there" among resource shares.
However, turning back to BHP, he added, "But it's net cash, huge amounts of assets, what's not to like?"
How have BHP shares been tracking?
BHP has gone from gains to small losses today and it's back to flat at time of writing.
That's a fair bit better than the ASX 200, which remains down 0.9% at this same time.
Juicy dividends aside, BHP shares have also handily outpaced the index in 2022, gaining 12.4% compared to a 6.9% loss by the benchmark.
