There aren't too many ASX stocks on our market that pay out dividends you could set your watch to. Our unique system of franking arguably incentivises companies to pay out as much of their profits as they can during any given year. Whilst this is great for our dividend-loving investors out there, it can result in ebbs and flows in shareholder income, often depending on the economic cycle.
Just go back to the COVID-ravaged years of 2020 and 2021 to see this in action with many of the ASX's most prominent dividend payers.
But despite this, there are still a handful of ASX 200 shares that dividend investors can indeed set their watches to, or have decades-long streaks of not cutting their shareholder payouts anyway.
The Australian Foundation Investment Co Ltd (ASX: AFI) is one. AFIC is a listed investment company (LIC) that has been around for almost 100 years. Over the past three or four decades, it has built and maintained a reputation as one of the ASX's most reliable income payers. Indeed, it has been decades since its shareholders endured a dividend cut.
Every six months, a dividend payment that has either been held steady or raised has arrived in shareholders' bank accounts without fail. That includes during the COVID-induced ASX dividend drought, as well as the tumultuous years of the global financial crisis.
Like most LICs, AFIC owns and manages a portfolio of underlying investments on behalf of its investors. This portfolio consists mostly of blue chip ASX dividend stocks, with some international stocks thrown in.
You can set your watch to this 4.4% ASX dividend stock
Using prudent and conservative stewardship, AFIC's management team uses the stream of income received from these ASX dividend stocks to fund its own payouts.
The result has been that remarkable decades-long streak of uncut, uninterrupted shareholder payouts.
The most recent of these payouts was the August final dividend worth 14.5 cents per share. Before that, shareholders enjoyed the interim dividend from February worth 12 cents per share. The final dividend also came with a bonus special dividend worth 5 cents per share.
These 2025 dividends give AFIC shares a trailing dividend yield of 4.44% at yesterday's closing share price of $7.10. Now, we don't yet know what kind of ordinary payouts AFIC will dole out over 2026. Saying that, this ASX dividend stock's track record does bode well. However, AFIC has already told shareholders to expect two special dividends, each worth 2.5 cents per share, alongside the ordinary payments when they arrive in 2026.
You'd forgive shareholders for setting their watches for that today.
