Fortunately for income investors, there are plenty of ASX 200 dividend stocks to choose from on the local share market.
Two blue chips that have recently named as buys are listed below. Let's see why brokers are feeling bullish about these names right now:
Transurban Group (ASX: TCL)
The first ASX 200 dividend stock that is highly rated by analysts is Transurban.
It is a toll road operator with a portfolio of important roads across Australia and North America. This includes the CityLink toll road in Melbourne, the Cross City Tunnel in Sydney, and AirportlinkM7 in Brisbane.
The team at Bell Potter is feeling very positive about Transurban's outlook and has the company on its Australian equities panel. These are the brokers top monthly picks and stocks it believes offer attractive risk-adjusted returns over the long term.
This is largely because of its inflation-linked revenue stream. In addition, the broker thinks the company's significant growth pipeline should be supportive of dividend growth in the future. The broker recently said:
We believe the current inflationary environment is favourable for Transurban given its inflation-linked revenue stream with annual escalators. Moreover, TCL provides low risk cash flows over the long term, with long concession duration (30+ years), and relative traffic/income resilience. The group's current pipeline of growth projects is $3.3 billion (TCL's share of total project cost) and further huge development opportunities are expected over the next few decades, supported by population and economic growth.
Bell Potter is forecasting dividend yields of approximately 5% over the next 12 months and beyond.
Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS)
Another blue chip ASX 200 dividend stock that is highly rated by brokers is telco giant Telstra.
One of those brokers is Goldman Sachs, which is feeling bullish about the company's outlook. This is thanks to its key mobile business. It also sees opportunities for the company to unlock value from asset divestments.
We believe the low risk earnings (and dividend) growth that Telstra is delivering across FY22-25, underpinned through its mobile business, is attractive. We also believe that Telstra has a meaningful medium term opportunity to crystallise value through commencing the process to monetize its InfraCo Fixed assets – which we estimate could be worth between A$22-33bn.
In respect to dividends, Goldman 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 $3.89, this represents dividend yields of 4.9% and 5.15%, respectively.
Goldman has a buy rating and $4.35 price target on its shares.
