Out of the major ASX blue-chip shares, Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) shares could be one of the best pick for passive income.
Telstra owns Australia's leading telecommunications network, and benefits from ongoing user growth and subscription price increases.
One of the most appealing things about Telstra as an ASX dividend share is its dividend payout ratio is close to 100% of its earnings. That unlocks a good dividend yield.
It's advantageous to have a diversified portfolio of businesses for a dividend-focused investor. But, if someone were aiming for $1,000 of annual passive income, it'd be good to know how many Telstra shares you'd need.
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$1,000 passive income goal
Investing in ASX companies usually comes with the benefit of franking credits, so I'm going to include that in the calculation of how many Telstra shares I'd need.
If someone invested in the ASX telco share today, it'd be too late to receive the FY25 dividend payout. The next dividends someone would be eligible to receive are the FY26 payments.
I think it's highly likely that the business will be able to grow its dividend in the 2026 financial year.
The forecast on Commsec suggests the business could pay an annual dividend per share of 20 cents, representing a year-over-year increase of 5.25%, or 1 cent per share, if that's what happens.
Including the franking credits, this would mean investors would need 3,500 Telstra shares to generate $1,000 of annual passive income.
At the time of writing, that would require an investment of $16,590.
Is the dividend expected to continue increasing?
The further into the future we look, the more challenging it is to forecast what'll happen next. Just look at how much unpredictability US President Trump has added to the picture over the last 12 months.
Telstra's profit is a bit more consistent than the share market, thanks to its defensive utilities offering, so its future is easier to forecast.
The projection on Commsec suggests the dividend could increase by another 1 cent per share – a 5% year-over-year rise – in FY27 to 21 cents per share.
Therefore, at the current Telstra share price, it offers a potential grossed-up dividend yield of 6% (including franking credits) in FY26 and 6.3% in FY27.
A defensive business offering a dividend yield of more than 5% and growing at 5% per year seems like a very promising investment idea to me for passive income.
