Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) is a popular dividend stock for income investors on the ASX.
It's not hard to see why. Wesfarmers is a true blue chip share. It has been on the ASX for decades, is diversified across many different corners of the economy, and has a mature, cash-generating business.
But today, let's go through this company's dividend history, and determine just how accomplished Wesfarmers is as an ASX income stock.
So, to start with, let's go through the current dividend yield Wesfarmers shares have on offer. Yesterday, the company closed at $83.26, after rising 0.40% for the day.
At this share price, Wesfarmers has a seemingly unimpressive dividend yield of 2.43% on the table.
Although this might seem rather small for an ASX blue chip share, it is more a byproduct of the company's extraordinary share price performance than anything else. Wesfarmers' stock is up almost 80% over the past two years. If the company were trading at the same level today as it was back in July of 2023, it would have a dividend yield of around 4.3% right now.
But let's go through this company's recent payout history.
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The ASX dividend history of Wesfarmers stock
We'll start from 2020, as the payouts prior to that year were influenced heavily by Wesfarmers' ownership of Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL), which was spun out back in late 2018.
Back in 2020, Wesfarmers funded a total of $1.70 in dividends per share. That was a rather extraordinary figure in itself, given the impact of the pandemic back then.
In 2021, Wesfarmers was able to raise its dividend, this time paying out $1.78 in dividends per share over the calendar year.
2022 saw another small increase, with Wesfarmers stock yielding a total of $1.80 in dividends per share.
Investors were treated to a big hike for 2023, with the company upping its payouts to an annual $1.91.
This was expanded again last year, with investors receiving a total of $1.98 in dividends per share from their Wesfarmers stock.
We've only seen one dividend paid out in 2025 so far. But once again, it looks as though Wesfarmers will bring home the bacon once more in 2025. That's given the company's April interim dividend of 95 cents per share was a meaningful improvement on the prior year's equivalent payment of 91 cents.
Wesfarmers dividends have almost always come with full franking credits attached.
So between 2020 and 2024, Wesfarmers increased its dividend by a raw 16.47%. That works out to be a compounded annual growth rate of roughly 3.9% per annum.
