Call me eccentric, but I greatly enjoy running my slide rule over S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) stocks to uncover those passive income jewels.
In this process, I tend to stick to dividend stocks trading on the ASX 200. That's because there's usually more readily available information in the larger end of the market. And the bigger companies tend to be less volatile than their smaller peers.
It's also worth screening for companies that offer fully franked dividends. This should enable me to hold onto more of that passive income at tax time.
And I prefer companies with long track records of making two (or more) annual payments, as well as those that have been growing their dividend payouts. This often bodes well for what to expect from their ongoing passive income stream.
Finally, we need to keep in mind that the yields we're looking at are trailing yields. Future yields may be higher or lower, depending on a range of company-specific and macroeconomic factors.
With that said, we move on to the big reveal.
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Pumping $150 a month in passive income from this ASX 200 dividend jewel
The ASX 200 passive income jewel that's at the top of my radar today is petroleum refiner and fuel distributor, Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD).
Atop its dividend payouts, the Ampol share price has gained 13% over the past year, currently trading for $35.08 a share.
Although Ampol's March quarterly update fell short of expectations, this was largely due to temporary refinery outages and disruptions to shipping in the Red Sea, both of which we hope won't be repeated in the current quarter.
As for the full 2023 calendar year results, Ampol reported a 2% increase in earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) from 2022 – excluding significant items – to $1.30 billion.
And total sales volumes in 2023 soared 17% year on year to reach all-time highs of 28.4 billion litres.
Despite a 25% year on year drop in net profit after tax (NPAT) to $549 million, management declared a record final fully franked dividend of $1.80 a share. Eligible investors will have received that payout on 27 March.
This 16% increase in Ampol's passive income is precisely the kind of dividend growth trend I look for, as mentioned up top.
Ampol shares also delivered a fully franked interim dividend of 95 cents per share on 27 September.
This sees the ASX 200 dividend jewel paying $2.75 a share over the past 12 months.
So, to pump $150 a month in passive income (or $1,800 a year) from Ampol shares I'd need to buy 655 shares today.
