When it comes to investing for passive income, I lean towards S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) dividend shares over the smaller income stocks.
That's partly because there's more readily available research on ASX 200 companies than most of the smaller ones. And partly because large-cap shares are generally less volatile than small-cap shares.
The big dividend stocks also tend to have longer track records of making regular, twice-yearly payouts. And I want my passive income stream to be as secure as possible.
Which brings us to ASX 200 petroleum refiner and fuel distributor Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD).
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What kind of dividend yield do Ampol shares trade on?
The Ampol share price has been on a tear in 2023, gaining 15% since the opening bell on 3 January. The ASX 200 fuel stock is down 0.13% on Friday morning, with shares trading for $31.90 apiece.
As for the passive income, Ampol paid an all-time high interim dividend of $1.20 per share on 28 September, fully franked.
Management also declared a record final dividend of $1.55 per share. If you own shares, that will have landed in your bank account on 30 March.
That works out to a full-year passive income payout of $2.75 per share. At the current share price, the ASX 200 dividend stock trades on a fully franked trailing yield of 8.6%.
The two all-time high dividend payouts were fuelled by exceptionally strong full-year results. That included a statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) of $796 million, up a whopping 42% from the prior year.
How much passive income has this ASX 200 stock delivered in 10 months?
While I referred to the $2.75 per share in dividends as the 'full year' payout, you don't need to have owned the stock for 12 months to have received that passive income.
To snare both the record interim and record final dividends, you would have had to own shares on 1 September. The ASX 200 fuel retailer traded ex-dividend on 2 September.
A few weeks before that, intraday on 5 August, Ampol was trading for $32.25 a share, having lost about 5% over the previous three trading days.
While there are no guarantees a falling stock can't keep sliding, those kinds of dips from a blue-chip company can represent a good buying opportunity for passive income investors.
As was the case with Ampol on 5 August.
If you'd had an eye on those upcoming dividends and bought $6,000 worth of shares on the day, you could have snapped up 186 shares with enough change left for a pack of gum.
At $2.75 per share in dividends, that means you'd already have banked $511.50 in passive income from this ASX 200 stock, with potential tax benefits from those franking credits.
