Monthly dividend payers are highly valued among the ASX investing community for the obvious reason that they provide regular dividend cash flow. Most investors have to wait at least three, but usually six, months for their ASX dividend stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to pay out a dividend.
As such, any investment that shortens that span to provide income every four weeks or so is automatically going to draw some attention.
There aren't too many ASX dividend stocks on our market that pay out a monthly dividend. In fact, there are only a handful. But only one seemingly offers a dividend yield of about 8% today.
That one ASX dividend stock is the Metrics Master Income Trust (ASX: MXT).
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An ASX dividend stock with an 8% yield?
The Metrics Master Income Trust is a listed investment trust (LIT), which means it owns a portfolio of underlying assets that it manages on behalf of its investors.
This trust is a rather unique offering in that, instead of holding other ASX stocks, it invests in 'alternative assets'. In this case, that means a portfolio of corporate loans. These loans are domiciled in a range of sectors of the economy, including consumer discretionary, financial, and industrial companies and investments. But a majority of the Master Income Trust's loans are in real estate. These loans are mostly rated either 'BB' or 'BBB'.
The stated aims of this trust are to provide income certainty to investors, alongside relatively low capital volatility and risk of permanent capital loss.
But let's talk about dividends.
As we've already touched on, this LIT's dividend distributions are paid out 12 times a year. Over the past 12 months, investors have received a total of 15.52 cents per unit. The latest of these payouts comes out today, as it happens – a December dividend worth 1.24 cents per unit.
At the current Metrics Master Income Trust unit price of $1.92, these payouts give this ASX dividend stock a trailing yield of 8.08%.
Is the Metrics Master Trust a buy for income?
Before yield-hungry investors rush out to buy this ASX dividend stock for income, they should take note of a few things.
Firstly, due to this investment's nature, its payouts don't usually come with franking credits attached.
Secondly, private credit investments are not stocks, and don't behave in the same way. They are incredibly sensitive to interest rates, for one. For another, they can be highly unpredictable in hard economic times.
And private credit investments don't offer the same kinds of growth and compounding potential as stocks do.
To illustrate, Metrics Master Income Trust units haven't really gone anywhere since listing back in 2017. Today, you can buy the Trust's units for a lower price than what was available for most of 2018. Investors are down about 7.7% over just 2025.
As such, that big dividend yield is probably all you are going to get from this dividend stock. That might suit some investors just fine. But others who might want to get the best bang for their buck, perhaps not.
