BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares closed higher in the green on Wednesday afternoon.
When the bell rang on the ASX at 4pm, the shares were up around 2.5% at $59.76 each.
The increase means the ASX mining giant's shares have now risen nearly 31% over the year-to-date, and are up around 44% from 12 months ago.
BHP's share price gains over the past couple of years is one thing attracting many investors.
But the shares are also a very popular option for investors searching for passive income.
It's not hard to see why. The blue-chip major is currently the largest stock on the ASX by market capitalisation, it has a consistently strong operational performance, and therefore, a long history of paying fully-franked dividends to shareholders.
But what if you wanted to generate $10,000 of passive income from BHP shares every year? What exactly would that entail?
Let's crunch the numbers.
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What passive income does BHP pay its shareholders?
First, we need to understand what dividends the mining giant pays its shareholders.
BHP traditionally pays two fully-franked dividends to shareholders each year, in March and September.
The miner most recently paid its shareholders an interim dividend of $1.0385 per share in March, fully franked.
Based on the latest consensus forecasts, BHP is expected to pay a fully-franked dividend of A$2.148 per share in FY26. Based on the current share price, that translates to a forward dividend yield of around 3.6%.
It's not the highest dividend yield, but it represents the company's stability and consistency.
How many BHP shares do I need to buy to generate $10,000 in passive income?
Using the figures above, in order to generate $10,000 in passive income from BHP shares alone, an investor would need to buy 4,655 shares.
How much would that cost?
At the time of writing, BHP shares are changing hands for $59.76.
This means that to buy the 4,655 shares I need for $1,000 of passive income, I would need to invest around $278,000.
That's certainly not a small amount. But it could be worth it in the long run.
Not only would I be getting a nice paycheck every six months, but there is potential for capital returns too.
And also don't forget, that entire amount wouldn't need to be invested all in one go.
Is this a good time to buy into BHP? Expert analysts are on the fence. According to Market Index data, eight out of 10 brokers currently have a hold rating on the ASX bank shares.
