I believe that Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) shares have demonstrated their ability to be a strong pick for passive income-seeking investors.
In my view, there's more to being an appealing ASX dividend share than just passive income. I like to see rising revenue, climbing profit, and a regularly rising dividend per share.
I believe Telstra shares tick all these boxes, so let's run through my three main elements.
Revenue growth
I believe that revenue is the most important factor that helps most businesses become larger.
In the FY25 result, Telstra reported revenue growth of $23.6 billion, which represented statutory growth of 0.5% and underlying growth of 0.7%.
As time goes on, I think Telstra's mobile division (and 5G network) will become increasingly important for the overall business. During FY25, mobile income rose 3% thanks to a combination of mobile handheld user growth and a higher average revenue per user (ARPU).
Due to the ongoing essential nature of the internet to households and businesses these days, I believe the business can continue delivering revenue growth in the coming years, particularly if Australia's population continues growing.
Profit growth
Generating net profit is what enables businesses to fund their passive dividend income payments. Revenue growth helps profit grow, assuming profit margins don't go backwards.
What I particularly like to see with a business like Telstra is growing profit margins, which usually happens because of operating leverage. If expenses don't rise as fast as income, then net profit can go in the right direction.
In underlying terms, the net profit for owners of Telstra's shares grew by 2.6% to $2.2 billion, and earnings per share (EPS) rose 3.2% to 19.1 cents. Cash EPS jumped 12% to 22.4 cents.
For Telstra, I think it's very useful to recognise that as it adds more subscribers, the cost of the network is being spread across more users, which helps increase margins. FY25 saw mobile income growth of 3% to $11 billion and operating profit (EBITDA) growth of 5% to $5.3 billion.
I believe Telstra's net profit can continue rising as it benefits from further digitalisation of Australia's economy, the growing population, and ongoing investments in its network and AI.
Dividend growth for owners of Telstra shares
The Telstra board of directors has been increasing the dividend per share each year in the last few years.
The latest annual dividend was 19 cents per share in FY25. At the time of writing, that translates into a fully franked dividend yield of approximately 3.75% and a grossed-up dividend yield of 5.4%, including franking credits.
I'm currently expecting the Telstra passive dividend income could be 20 cents per share in FY26, which would translate into a fully franked dividend income of 4% and a grossed-up dividend yield of 5.6%, including franking credits.
With the prospect of rising profits and dividends, I think this ASX dividend share is primed to deliver more shareholder growth.
