It's no secret that Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares are a common choice for income investors seeking dividends on the ASX. As an ASX 200 big four bank share, Westpac has a long history of paying out large, and fully franked dividends to its investors.
But how much income are Westpac shares throwing off today? After all, this ASX bank share has had a bit of a rough time in recent years. Over the past 12 months, the Westpac share price is languishing, down just over 4% since March 2022. And over the past two years, the losses are even more severe at around 12%.
In fact, the Westpac share price has been something of a perennial loser, having lost more than 26% over the past five years:
So let's hope Westpac's dividends have been able to absorb at least some of this shareholder pain.
Well, they have. Over the past 12 months, Westpac has paid out two dividend cheques. As is the norm for an ASX 200 share. These consisted of the interim dividend of 61 cents per share investors received in June last year. As well as the final dividend of 64 cents per share that was paid out in December. Both dividends were fully franked, of course.
That gives the Westpac share price a healthy trailing dividend yield of 5.75% at today's share price of $21.75 (at the time of writing), with an annual total of $1.25 in dividends per share.
So how much money would an investor have to have tied up in Westpac shares to get to an income of $150 per month?
Can we get $150 a month from Westpac shares?
Well, we can easily work that out. $150 a month would equate to a total of $1,800 per year.
At today's dividend yield of 5.75%, an investor would need a total of approximately $31,300 invested in Westpac shares to get an annual dividend cheque worth $1,800 per year, or $150 per month. That's assuming Westpac keeps its dividends at 2022's levels in 2023, of course.
If Westpac ups its dividends this year, as it did last year, then that amount will fall. If Westpac trims its dividends, then we will need to have more cash in Westpac to get that same income.
Fortunately, we might well see the former scenario if one ASX broker is to be believed.
As my Fool colleague James covered earlier this week, ASX broker Morgans reckons Westpac will up its dividends over 2023, 2024 and 2025 and get to an annual total of $1.61 in dividends per share by FY2025.
No doubt, shareholders will be hoping that this prediction for Westpac's dividends proves accurate.
