Now is a good day to be a shareholder of Suncorp Group Ltd (ASX: SUN).
And that's gots nothing to do with the insurance giant's shares trading slightly higher on Friday.
At the time of writing, the company's shares are up 0.5% to $18.87.
Why is it a good day to own Suncorp shares?
The reason that today is a great day to own the company's shares is that Friday is pay day for them.
And this pay day is very different to previous years.
That's because Suncorp will be paying a few different dividends to eligible shareholders later this morning.
What is happening?
Last month, Suncorp released its half year results and reported an 8.9% increase in general insurance gross written premiums (GWP) to $7.5 billion and a 30% jump in cash earnings to $860 million.
Things were even better when you include bank sale proceeds, with net profit after tax up 89% to $1.1 billion.
Given its strong profitability and the completion of the sale of its bank operations to ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ), Suncorp announced bumper returns to shareholders.
And when I say bumper, I mean it!
A fully franked interim dividend of 41 cents per share was declared with its results. This represents a 20.6% increase on last year's interim dividend and a payout ratio of 60.6% of cash earnings.
In addition, Suncorp decided to reward its shareholders with $4.1 billion of net proceeds from the sale of Suncorp Bank. This is through a $3.8 billion capital return and $300 million fully franked special dividend, which equates to $3.00 per share and 22 cents per share, respectively.
That's no less than three separate returns with a total value of $3.63 per share.
Based on where the Suncorp share price was trading before going ex-dividend, this was the equivalent of a massive 15.5% dividend yield.
To put that into context, a $10,000 investment in Suncorp shares before the ex-dividend date would mean a pay check of $1,550 today.
Should you invest?
While those capital returns may be gone now, it isn't too late to invest according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.
The broker recently put a buy rating and $24.67 price target on its shares. This implies potential upside of ~30% for investors over the next 12 months.
In addition, Goldman is forecasting fully franked 4%+ dividend yields from its shares this year and next.
