As a blue chip ASX 200 share, Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) has long commanded a reputation as a healthy dividend payer. After all, Woolies consistently pays out two dividends per year, a habit it has spent more than three decades honing.
And it has been incredibly lucrative for shareholders. Back in 1994, Woolworth shares were paying out dividends worth 12 cents per share. Last year, investors enjoyed a total of $1.08 per share in dividend income. That's a very pleasant runway.
But how does this illustrious history stand up today? Let's check out how much dividend income an investor would have enjoyed from Woolworths shares in 2022.
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How much dividend income do Woolworths shares pay today?
So let's start out by assuming an investor bought $15,000 worth of Woolworths shares at the start of the year. Woolworths finished up 2021 at a share price of $38.01. So if an investor bought $15,000 worth of Woolies shares at that pricing, they would have received 394 shares with a little cash left over.
So Woolworths has again paid out two dividends over 2022. The first was an interim dividend that was paid out in April. This was worth 39 cents per share, fully franked– a significant drop from the 53 cents per share dividend that investors enjoyed in 2021.
Our 394 Woolworths shares would have resulted in a cash payment of $153.66 from this interim dividend.
Then, the company's final dividend came in September. This was a fully-franked payment worth 53 cents per share, a small drop from the 55 cents per share investors enjoyed last year.
This dividend payment would have yielded a payment of $216.70.
All up, that is a total of $370.36 in dividend income from our $15,000 in 2022. That represents a yield on our cost of 2.47%, or 3.53% grossed-up with Woolies' full franking.
On today's Woolworths share price of $35 (at the time of writing), Woolworths has a trailing dividend yield of 2.63%, or 3.76% grossed-up.
