If you are considering buying shares of ASX 200 telco Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) today, chances are you are doing so with an eye on this company's famous dividend.
Ever since Telstra was incrementally privatised and floated onto the ASX back in the 1990s and 2000s, its shares have been known for the fat, and usually fully-franked dividends they shower on shareholders' shoulders.
Of course, Telstra's dividend chops aren't as beefy as they used to be. If you bought Telstra between 2005 and 2016, you would have become used to bagging a fully-franked dividend yield of 6% or even 7%.
Those days are, sadly, over. But even so, Telstra has proved itself a winning dividend share in recent years. To illustrate, Telstra shareholders haven't seen a dividend cut since 2019 and have enjoyed an annual dividend increase every year since 2022.
So, where does this stock's dividends stand in May 2026?
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What kind of dividend yield are Telstra shares offering?
Well, Telstra has paid out two dividends over the past 12 months, as is its norm. We had last year's final dividend from September, worth 9.5 cents per share, fully franked. That represented a 5.56% hike over 2024's final dividend of 9 cents per share.
Then, this year, we saw Telstra announce an interim dividend of 9.5 cents per share. That matched the equivalent payout of 2025. However, this latest interim dividend was unusual. It was the first dividend Telstra has paid out in a very long time that didn't come with full franking credits attached. Yes, it was partially franked at 90.48%, so not a huge impact for investors. But still, the symbolism is notable.
So, we have an interim dividend worth 9.5 cents per share, and a final dividend also worth 9.5 cents per share. This annual total of 19 cents per share gives Telstra a trailing dividend yield of 3.8%. That's at the current (at the time of writing) share price of $5.27.
Remember, a trailing dividend yield only represents a company's past payouts. It does not mean that investors buying Telstra shares today are guaranteed to get a 3.8% return on their investment from dividends.
Saying that, experts are optimistic when it comes to Telstra's potential future payouts. My Fool colleague Tristan looked at this just this week. He found that analysts are pencilling in an annual dividend of 21 cents per share for FY 2026, rising to 22 cents by FY 2027, and 23 cents by FY 2028.
Of course, those are just predictions. We'll have to wait and see what Telstra's next dividend will look like.
