Since the Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) share price first listed on the ASX back in late 2018, the company has quickly built up a reputation for strong and consistent dividend income. Coles has paid out two dividends per year since finding its own two feet on the ASX.
What's more, the company has managed to increase its annual dividends every year since 2019. That includes during the COVID-disrupted year of 2020, not something arch-rival Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) can say.
And yet the Coles share price hasn't quite been so kind. Today (at the time of writing), Coles is sitting at $16.55 a share. This puts the supermarket operator at a year-to-date loss of 7.5%. Coles has lost close to 15% of its value since mid-August alone when the company hit a new record high of $19.65.
Saying that, the company still remains well above the approximate $1.50 levels it floated at back in 2018. Investors are still up a healthy 29% or so since Coles was spun out of Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) back then.
But we can conclude that the only meaningful returns Coles shares have enjoyed over the past two or so years, at least on today's pricing, have come from dividends.
So how much dividend income are investors enjoying from their Coles shares?
How much dividend income would $10,000 worth of Coles shares yield?
Well, let's say an investor has $10,000 worth of Coles shares right now. That would give the said investor 604 shares at today's pricing, with a little change left over.
So Coles has dutifully doled out its two dividends already in 2022. The first was the interim payment of 33 cents per share that was received on 31 March. Those 604 shares would have yielded a cash payment of $199.32 for that dividend.
The second was the final dividend of 30 cents per share that investors enjoyed on 28 September. That would have yielded a payment of $181.20. So together, our investor would have been paid a total of $380.52 in 2022 for their $10,000 worth of Coles shares.
That's a yield worth 3.81% on the current Coles share price. Since Coles' dividends came fully franked as well, that yield grosses up to 5.44% with the value of those franking credits included.
