2023 turned out to be a wonderful year for the Australian share market and ASX 200 shares. Thanks to a late surge, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) closed the year with a rise of 7.8%. And that's not even including dividends.
As always though, there were plenty of shares that did far better and plenty that did far worse. Today, I'm going to discuss my best-performing ASX dividend share of 2023.
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My best ASX dividend share for 2023
It was none other than Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES). Wesfarmers is the sprawling ASX conglomerate behind some of Australia's most famous retail names. Its crown jewel is undoubtedly Bunnings Warehouse.
But Wesfarmers also owns Kmart, OfficeWorks and Target. That's in addition to a plethora of other companies, which range from lithium mining to gas distribution and clothing manufacturing.
The Wesfarmers share price indeed had a top year last year. The company started out at $45.91 a share. But by the time last month wound up, those same shares were asking $57.04 each. That's a gain worth 24.24%.
But the gains from Wesfarmers shares didn't stop there. There are also dividend returns to consider. Wesfarmers has always been a popular dividend share that income investors have flocked to. The company has decades' worth of steady, reliable dividend returns to boast of.
Last year, Wesfarmers paid out $1.91 in fully-franked dividends per share. That's worth a yield of 3.34% at today's pricing. But thanks to the fact that I was able to pick up Wesfarmers stock for a far lower share price a few years ago, my yield on cost looks more like 5.5%.
So all in all, I enjoyed returns of close to 30% from my Wesfarmers shares over 2023. That makes it my best ASX dividend share last year.
I love this company, and can't envision a future where I sell out of Wesfarmers. I'm hoping for just as good a year in 2024 as I enjoyed in 2023. Let's see if that happens.
