Today is a good day to have Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) shares in your portfolio for a couple of reasons.
The first reason is that the private health insurer's shares are pushing higher this morning and look set to end their losing streak.
Prior to today, due to the market weakness, Medibank shares were down over 5% since this time last month.
What else?
Another reason why today is a good day for Medibank shareholders is that the company will be rewarding them with its latest dividend on Thursday.
As a reminder, last month the company released its FY 2023 results and reported a 3.2% increase in revenue to $7.36 billion and a 14.8% jump in underlying net profit after tax to $500 million.
This solid profit growth allowed the company's board to increase its fully franked dividend by 9% to 14.6 cents per share for FY 2023. This comprises a 6.3 cents per share interim dividend and an 8.3 cents per share final dividend. The latter was up 13.7% on last year's fully franked final dividend of 7.3 cents per share.
In respect to payday, it will be the company's 8.3 cents per share final dividend that will be hitting bank accounts today. Based on where Medibank shares are currently trading, this represents an attractive 2.45% dividend yield.
So, if you had $10,000 invested in Medibank's shares, you would be getting a touch under $250 in dividends.
Should you invest?
Most brokers are sitting on the fence with the private health insurer at present.
For example, Citi, Macquarie, and Morgans all have the equivalent of neutral ratings on its shares. Though, with price targets around the $3.75 mark, they do see approximately 10% upside from current levels. That's not too shabby for a neutral rating.
