Looking at the Metcash Ltd (ASX: MTS) stock price today, there's one metric that will probably jump out rather immediately to most investors. That would be Metcash's stonking dividend yield.
Today, Metcash – the ASX 200 consumer staples stock behind the IGA and Mitre 10 brands – is trading at $3.88 a share, down a hefty 1.27% for the day.
At this stock price, Metcash is offering a trailing dividend yield of 5.67%. That comes with full franking credits too, which means it grosses up to an impressive 8.1%.
Yes, this yield is no joke. It stems from Metcash's last two fully-franked dividend payments. The first of those is the final dividend of 11 cents per share Metcash paid out last August. The second is the interim dividend, also worth 11 cents per share, that shareholders bagged back at the end of January this year.
A 5.77% dividend yield is not a common sight on the ASX, particularly the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
To illustrate, that's a higher dividend yield than the likes that income heavyweights Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS), Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and even Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) are offering today.
So does this yield make Metcash stock a no-brainer buy for dividend investors today?
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Is Metcash stock a buy for that huge dividend yield?
Full disclosure, I don't own Metcash stock today and have no plans on buying. Metcash doesn't exactly have an illustrious history of outsized share gains. Today, it's share price is basically where it was back in mid-2005.
Looking at Metcash's most recent earnings from December, I'm not convinced this is going to change anytime soon. For the first half of its 2023 financial year, the company reported a 1.6% rise in revenues to $9 billion. But there was also a 3.4% decline in underlying group earnings to $246.5 million.
As such, I don't have a strong conviction that Metcash is going to be a market-beating ASX 200 stock in the years ahead.
Saying that, I do believe this company is a good buy for anyone focused on maximising franked dividend income. For retirees, pensioners, and anyone else who relies on stock market dividends, it's my view that Metcash is a solid option today.
Its yield is towards the higher end of the market. Yet this company has also been a historically stable and reliable income payer (unlike many other 5%-plus yielders today).
This company's payouts have been rising (if a little disjointedly) for more than a decade. Combined with Metcash's consumer staples nature, I do not expect any meaningful cuts to this company's payouts going forward.
So for those investors seeking high levels of franked income, I think Metcash stock can play a useful role as part of a diversified portfolio of ASX dividend stocks.
