If you are in the process of building a retirement portfolio, you may be looking for some potential additions.
But what sort of ASX shares should you look at for a retirement portfolio?
Firstly, it is probably best to say goodbye to high risk speculative stocks. While big money can be made from them when things go well, more often than not things will turn sour. And wiping out a portion of your retirement savings at this stage is never a good idea.
Instead, investors may want to focus on buying ASX 200 shares that have defensive qualities, attractive dividend yields, and strong business models.
With that in mind, let's take a look at three ASX 200 shares that tick these boxes and have recently been named as buys by analysts. They are as follows:
APA Group (ASX: APA)
The first ASX 200 share to consider for a retirement portfolio is APA Group. This energy infrastructure company could be a great option due to its defensive earnings, long track record of growth, and generous dividend yield.
In respect to the latter, Macquarie is forecasting dividends of 57 cents per share in FY 2025 and 57.5 cents per share in FY 2026. Based on the current APA Group share price of $7.78, this equates to 7.3% and 7.4% dividend yields, respectively.
Macquarie has an outperform rating and $8.23 price target on its shares.
Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL)
Another company with defensive earnings is Coles. As a provider of our daily essentials, consumers fill their trolleys each week no matter what is happening in the economy.
Morgans is positive on the company and is forecasting fully franked dividends of 68 cents per share in FY 2025 and then 78 cents per share in FY 2026. Based on the current Coles share price of $17.95, this implies dividend yields of 3.8% and 4.35%, respectively.
Bell Potter has a buy rating and $21.55 price target on its shares.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)
Finally, many of us can't go without phone or internet access. This makes Telstra another very defensive ASX 200 share to consider for a retirement portfolio.
Especially with its shares offering some good dividend yields in the near term. For example, Goldman Sachs is forecasting fully franked dividends of 19 cents per share in FY 2025 and then 20 cents per share in FY 2026. Based on the current Telstra share price of $3.88, this equates to yields of 4.9% and 5.15%, respectively.
Goldman has a buy rating and $4.35 price target on Telstra's shares.
