Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) shares have always been a solid option for income investors to consider. This diversified ASX 200 retail and industrial conglomerate has a very long ASX history, and a strong dividend record to boast of.
After all, this is the ASX share that bought Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) in its entirety back in 2007, only selling it back to the market in late 2018.
Wesfarmers shares have had a rough 2022, though. The company remains down more than 20% year to date, and down by almost as much over the past 12 months.
But Wesfarmers has been ratcheting its dividends back up over the past couple of years since it was forced to trim its payouts in light of the initial COVID pandemic back in 2020. That year saw Wesfarmers dole out $1.70 worth of dividends per share.
But last year, Wesfarmers upped this to $1.78. In 2022, the company has paid an interim dividend of 80 cents per share in March and a final dividend of $1 per share in October. That's an annual total of $1.80 per share. Both dividends came with full franking credits.
But exactly how much dividend income will an investor have earned this year from a $10,000 investment in Wesfarmers shares?
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How much have Wesfarmers shares paid out in dividend income?
Well, $10,000 would have bought a hypothetical investor 168 Wesfarmers shares (with some change left over) based on a share price of $59.30, which was what Wesfarmers was asking at the start of January.
Wesfarmers' March interim dividend would have yielded a cash payment for this investor of $134.40. The final dividend of $1 a share that was doled out back in October would have supplemented that $134.40 by another $168, giving the investor a total of $302.40 in dividend income for 2022.
Based on our original buy price of $59.30 per share, that represents a cash yield of just over 3% on our original $10,000.
