Investors who want to earn an easy passive income should consider ASX dividend shares.
There are several options out there. A blue-chip stock could yield anywhere from around 2%, up to riskier high-yield dividend shares which pay out closer to 8% or 10%. Sometimes they pay even more.
If you have the appetite for risk, high-yield shares could provide much higher returns. But only if you know where to look.
Here are two of my picks when it comes to high-yield ASX dividend shares, and they both pay a yield around 8%.
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Atlas Arteria Ltd (ASX: ALX)
Atlas Arteria is a global owner, operator, and developer of toll roads, with a portfolio of five toll roads in France, Germany, and the United States. The company was created out of the reorganisation of Macquarie Infrastructure Group in 2010.
The company's main asset is a roughly 31% stake in Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone, or APRR. APRR owns concessions to toll more than 2,300 kilometres of motorways in eastern France, most ending in late 2035. The company also wholly owns the Dulles Greenway toll road in the US state of Virginia.
As a toll road operator, Atlas Arteria is a classically defensive infrastructure asset. People will continue to rely heavily on essential infrastructure regardless of what point of the economic cycle we're in.
ASX shares like toll roads are also long-duration assets which have visible cash flows across a long period of time. They're also more reliant on contract renewals and can benefit from toll road increases. They're not only reliant on traffic growth.
Atlas Arteria typically pays its shareholders two unfranked dividends a year, in April and October, with payments dating back to 2013.
It most recently paid a 20 cent unfranked final dividend to shareholders in April, which equated to a total 40 cent dividend for the year. At the time of writing, that translates to a dividend yield of around 8.1%.
Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT)
Beach Energy produces oil and natural gas from numerous joint venture projects across Australia and New Zealand. Key projects include its onshore Cooper and Eromanga Basin project, which is recognised as Australia's most prolific oil and gas-producing basin. The project accounts for a substantial slice of the company's total production.
Founded in 1961, Beach Energy has expanded through a long series of mergers and acquisitions. It has ownership interests in strategic oil and gas infrastructure and assets, as well as a suite of exploration permits.
Unlike Atlas Arteria, Beach Energy is considered a more cyclical asset, which means the ASX shares can fluctuate depending on commodity prices and what part of the economic cycle we're in. But the benefit of a cyclical stock is that they tend to outperform during times of recovery.
Beach Energy typically pays shareholders two fully-franked dividends per year, in March and September, with payments dating back to 2005.
It most recently paid an unfranked interim dividend of 1 cent per share in March and announced a 2 cents per share final dividend earlier this month. At the time of writing, that translates to a dividend yield of around 8%.
