This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The third coronavirus vaccine authorized for emergency use in the United States is going to sit in the corner by itself for a little while. On Tuesday morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration issued a joint statement regarding Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE: JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine.

The agencies recommended that health care providers pause their use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine until an advisory committee can review six cases in which inoculations were followed by dangerous blood clots. All six occurred in women between the ages of 18 and 48 years old. Most importantly, they were associated with a low concentration of blood platelets.

If there is an associated risk, it’s an extremely small one. As of Monday, more than 6.8 million people had received Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.

At a rate of less than one patient in a million, this pause might seem like an excessive overabundance of caution. The agencies won’t please anyone with this decision, but they really don’t have another option.

Both AstraZeneca‘s (NASDAQ: AZN) COVID-19 vaccine and Johnson & Johnson’s employ a non-replicating virus that delivers genetic instructions. The European Medicines Agency recently said unusual blood clots that present in combination with low platelet levels should be listed as a very rare side effect of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after assessing dozens of cases similar to the six reported in association with J&J’s vaccine.

Blood clots that break free and travel to the blood vessels that serve the heart and other organ systems can be fatal. Strong blood thinners are standard treatments for dangerous clots, but giving those to patients with low platelet concentrations can be just as dangerous. 

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet on Wednesday, so based on its determination, injections with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine could be allowed to resume before the end of the week.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

More reading

• Analyst downgrades AstraZeneca stock due to vaccine side effect concerns
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX sees 7,000 points once more
• Could AstraZeneca double your money despite vaccine woes?
• 2 top ASX ETFs to buy right now
• Are COVID-19 vaccine worries affecting the CSL (ASX:CSL) share price?

Cory Renauer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. recommends Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

The post U.S. gives Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine a timeout appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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There are some ASX dividend shares that have been chosen by an expert stock picker as ideas for income.

Paul Rickard is one of the leading figures at Switzer Financial Group, and he recently shared some of his favourite income picks that aren’t miners or banks. Mr Rickard’s idea of a good ASX dividend share is one that’s quite boring, reliable, and importantly – has relatively stable capital. That means it won’t go up or down in price much.

These are the four ideas that he named:

Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW)

As the name suggests, this is a real estate investment trust (REIT) which is focused on finding quality properties and quality tenants, and maintaining a long-term weighted average lease expiry (WALE). The WALE is around 14 years, which is one of the longest in the sector.

Mr Rickard pointed out the diversification of the REIT. It’s invested in a variety of sectors including industrial and logistics, retail, office, telco exchanges and agri-logistics.

It has many recognisable tenants like government entities, BP, Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW), Ingham’s Group Ltd (ASX: ING), Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) and David Jones.

The REIT’s 100% distribution payout ratio means that it has a high yield. In FY21 it’s expecting to generate operating earnings per share (EPS) of at least 29.1 cents, which is growing of at least 2.8% and translates to a distribution yield of at least 6%.

APA Group (ASX: APA)

APA owns and operates $22 billion of energy infrastructure assets, including a huge gas pipeline network around the country, as well as pipelines that connect to 1.4 million gas consumers. It also owns various other energy assets.

Mr Rickard pointed out that “approximately 89% of APA’s revenue is ‘take or pay’ being either capacity charge revenue, regulated revenue or contracted fixed revenue. This means it is relatively fixed and not subject to short term variable demand.”

The nature of APA’s business, assets and customers means that the business has a lot of visibility for its financial expectations.

The ASX dividend share is expecting to pay a distribution of 51 cents per unit, which equates to a distribution yield of 5.1%.

Mr Rickard likes the low risk nature and stable cashflows of the business.

Medibank Private Limited (ASX: MPL)

Australia’s largest private health insurance business is the third pick of the financial commentator.

He noted that it keeps increasing its total policyholder count as well as its market share. It has done well to offset the difficulties of participation and affordability. There are areas of growth that the company is pursuing like in-home care, health and wellbeing services, and telehealth ancillary services.

Although the CEO will soon be departing, there are positives for the ASX dividend share – like the strong profit growth of both its investment income profit and the health insurance operating profit.

However, claims are expected to rise in the second half of FY21 as the COVID-19 effects on private health activities subsides, and volumes return. But the company is also expecting more efficiency improvements.

Using the numbers that Mr Rickard shared about the expected Medibank FY21 dividend, it has a forward grossed-up dividend yield of 5.8%.

Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)

The telco was the final pick by Mr Rickard, he thinks that Telstra can generate a little bit of share price growth, perhaps up to $3.75 over time. The demand for income, and the sale of TowerCo, could provide a floor for the Telstra share price.

For the foreseeable future, the dividend is expected to be $0.16 per share.

That means that the Telstra share price could offer a grossed-up dividend yield of 6.6% for the next couple of years.

More reading

• Why focus could soon shift to dividend upgrades for the Telstra (ASX:TLS) share price
• 2 ASX 200 shares to buy for dividends
• Telstra (ASX:TLS) share price hits new 8-month high
• How this ASX ETF is battling the biggest threat to Australian business growth
• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX sees 7,000 points once more

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Telstra Limited. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of APA Group, COLESGROUP DEF SET, and Woolworths Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Alcidion Group Ltd (ASX: ALC) shares will enter a trading halt this morning after the company’s early morning request.

Why are Alcidion shares in a trading halt?

The Aussie healthcare information company requested a trading halt from the market operator prior to this morning’s open. This comes ahead of an announcement to the market regarding acquisitions and capital raising.

Alcidion has requested a trading halt to remain in place until Friday’s market open. Alternatively, the halt will end when an announcement regarding the planned acquisition and capital raise is made.

That means Alcidion shares will not start trading on Wednesday unless an update is provided prior to 10 am AEST. 

What does Alcidion do?

Alcidion is a Melbourne-based group combining information technology with healthcare solutions. The company focuses on developing and licensing a range of software products for use in the healthcare sector.

Alcidion operates across Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom under brands such as Miya, Patientrack, and Smartpage. Alcidion has more than 65,000 users across more than 300 hospitals around the world.

How has Alcidion been performing recently?

As of Tuesday’s close, Alcidion boasts a market capitalisation of $332 million and closed just shy of a 52-week high. Alcidion shares have returned 86.5% for shareholders in the year to date and a whopping 580% in the last 5 years.

Shares in the Aussie healthcare informatics group will be worth watching this week. Particularly following the acquisition and capital raise update from the company. 

Alcidion shares have been rocketing higher to start the year with a strong performance in late February and March. Much of that has been driven by newly developed partnerships on a global scale.

This includes hitting new 52-week highs on the back of new agreements with a New Zealand District Health Board (DHB) and East Lancashire Hospitals HS Trust in the UK.

More reading

• 4 exciting small cap ASX shares to watch
• Why Alcidion, GrainCorp, Premier Investments, & Xero are storming higher
• Why the Alcidion (ASX:ALC) share price is surging 5% higher
• Why these ASX shares are breaking out into record highs

Ken Hall has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Alcidion Group Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alcidion Group Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) share price will be one to watch closely on Wednesday.

This follows news that the mining giant has been added to a leading broker’s conviction buy list.

What happened?

Goldman Sachs has been looking into the mining sector and has made changes to many of its recommendations.

One of those was adding the South32 share price to its conviction buy list with an improved price target of $3.40.

This price target implies potential upside of 18.5% over the next 12 months excluding dividends. Including the 5% dividend yield Goldman is expecting over the next 12 months, this return stretches to over 23%.

What did Goldman say?

The broker made the move after increasing its earnings per share estimates for FY 2021 and FY 22 by 12% and 31%, respectively. This was to reflect revisions to foreign exchange and commodity price estimates.

Based on these earnings estimates, Goldman feels the South32 share price is trading at an attractive level. This is particularly the case given its recovering free cash flow.

It commented: “We forecast a FCF yield of c.12% over the next two years, driven by our forecast 2% lift in Cu Eq production in FY21, S32’s decision to defer US$100mn in sustaining capex in FY21 and lowering cost base, and the recent removal of the Dendrobium Next Domain (DND) extension met coal project from our Illawarra mine model.”

Another reason the broker is positive on South32 is its commodity mix.

Goldman explained: “In addition to base metals (aluminium, nickel), we are also positive on alumina, met coal and manganese prices in 2H 2021 and 2022. These commodities represent over 50% of S32’s EBITDA.”

Finally, Goldman notes that the company’s restructuring has a number of benefits.

“S32 expects the sale of SA Energy coal to close imminently; pending closure we do not include this proposed transaction in our estimates; however, we estimate a potential net c. A10cps benefit (c.3% lift in our NAV) with the removal of US$875mn in asset closure provisions on the deal’s closure. This number also accounts for the recently revised deal structure in which S32 will provide an additional US$200mn in rehabilitation aid and a US$50mn working capital facility to Seriti, the acquirer of SAEC; this should provide Eskom and SA Treasury the confidence in the final sign-off on the transaction.”

All in all, Goldman believes the South32 share price is ain the buy zone today.

More reading

• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday
• Acquisitions and spin-offs put these 3 ASX shares on brokers’ “buy” list
• Why the South32 (ASX:S32) share price is climbing
• Why the South32 (ASX:S32) share price is outperforming today
• Why AVZ, Betmakers, Santos, & South32 shares are storming higher

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Galaxy Resources Ltd (ASX: GXY) share price is one to watch in early trade after an update on its Sal de Vida lithium project in Argentina.

Why is the Galaxy Resources share price on watch?

Shares in the Aussie lithium miner could be on the move this morning after a resource and reserve update as well as a development plan update for the major project site.

Galaxy Resources today reported an increase in resources and reserves at the Sal de Vida site in Catamarca, Argentina. That comes on the back of assessing hydrogeological data from the drilling of two production wells at the site.

The revised Brine Resources has increased 27% from prior estimates to 6.2 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). Galaxy also reported a 13 per cent increase in reserves estimates to 1.3 million tonnes of recoverable LCE.

The Galaxy Resources share price is one to watch in early trade on the back of the update. As well as the upgraded resource and reserves, Galaxy provided a Sal de Vida development plan. That follows the completion of the 2021 feasibility update for the wholly-owned site.

Galaxy reported front-end engineering design had been completed, confirming the lowest quartile capital intensity and operating costs for the site. The updated brine reserve estimate of 1.3 megatonnes of LCE reportedly supports a 44-year project life based on reserves only.

The Aussie lithium miner is on watch after reporting a target production of 32,000 tonnes per annum of battery-grade lithium carbonate. 

Shares in the Aussie lithium miner have been surging higher over the last year or so. In fact, the Galaxy Resources share price has climbed 41.1% higher in the last 12 months, including a 4.5% gain in yesterday’s session.

Foolish takeaway

The Galaxy Resources share price has been climbing higher of late and is on watch early today after its positive update. 

More reading

• Macquarie (ASX:MQG) just delivered ASX lithium shares a big boost
• Here’s why SEEK (ASX:SEK) and these ASX shares are at 52-week highs
• Orocobre (ASX:ORE) share price rebounds from broker downgrade
• Why Anteotech, Credit Clear, Galaxy, & Mach7 shares are storming higher
• The Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY) share price is on watch. Here’s why

Motley Fool contributor Ken Hall has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Ask A Fund Manager

The Motley Fool chats with fund managers so that you can get an insight into how the professionals think. In part 1 of our interview, Hyperion Asset Management lead portfolio manager Jason Orthman explained why Tesla shares are still cheap. Now in part 2, he tells us the ASX stock purchase that he’s most proud of and the travel company that bit him.

MF: If the market closed tomorrow for 5 years, which stock would you want to hold?

JO: It’d be easy to say Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), but I’m going to go with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN). Just to have something different. 

We really like its culture in terms of how relentless they are, how they continually want to improve their product, improve their offering, focused on the consumer continually. It’s very hard to compete against. 

There’s a lot of optionality in that business. It’s still very early, if you think of the transition to digital advertising, the transition to cloud [computing], the transition from physical retail into e-commerce. They’re all multi-trillion dollar opportunities. And Amazon’s still really early in it, despite its dominance. 

[Regarding] the regulatory issues… our research suggests the risks around that are actually relatively low. So something like Amazon, if you woke up in 5 years’ time, I think you’d do pretty well.

MF: What did you think of Jeff Bezos stepping down as chief executive?

JO: The fact that he’d been driving that business for 20, 25 years means the culture’s really embedded. Even if you go and visit an outpost, [like] some of their offices here in Australia, that same culture and core values are embedded as they would be in the head office in Seattle. Being founder-led for all that period of time, he really embedded those values in the business. 

The business is now bigger than Jeff Bezos, and he’d been stepping back from day-to-day management for a number of years. So that focus on, again, the product, the consumer, innovation, that’s going to continue on as is. 

We took that in its stride. If it happened 10 years earlier, that would’ve been a concern. But happening now, I think they’d be absolutely fine.

MF: Have you held Amazon for a long time?

JO: The fund will be 7 years [old] on the 1st of June. And it’s been in that fund for most of that journey, not from day one, but for most of that journey. We would’ve held that comfortably over 5 years.

Looking back

MF: Which stock are you most proud of from a past purchase?

JO: Tesla’s a really good one. There wasn’t a lot of need for us to make that investment. As I said, we watched that for 5 years before we purchased it. 

The amount of controversy, misinformation, level of shorting on that stock was extreme. So to go ahead and still purchase that and seek out 6 or 7 times [return] is pretty pleasing. 

Closer to home, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP), [which] we still own in our Australian products, and we did own it in the global equities fund at one stage. 

It went through the mainstream media through 2017 – there were question marks over the sustainability of its business model. We believed that that was a false narrative – the underlying economics of that business was strong.

There was no need to have underpayments through that system. Franchising is a tough business, so you’re always going to have pockets of that. But we believe that the underlying economics were there, the management team was really strong, and our market research suggested the system is really robust. 

So [we were proud] to buy that stock when there was a lot of negative media through the traditional papers and TV. As far as we’re aware, we’re the only large institutional fund manager that actually purchased stock through that period. 

And it’s gone from $40 to over $100 today. We’re pretty proud of that because it was a long consensus call and went against everything that was being spoken about in the market and the media.

MF: Is there a move that you regret from the past? For example, a missed opportunity or buying a stock at the wrong timing or price.

JO: Yeah, it was purchasing Tripadvisor Inc (NASDAQ: TRIP). We’ve put it down as one of the mistakes that we’ve made on this journey. 

Our research didn’t pick up how sticky consumer behaviour was and how strong the competitive offerings were. And we compounded that error, not only buying Tripadvisor but selling out of Priceline, which is now called Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG). 

We thought Tripadvisor could disrupt those traditional booking engines. It took us about two quarters to realise our research was incorrect, and we exited. And that saved our investors a lot of money. We lost money on that investment, but we didn’t experience the significant downside that those that have held onto that business had. 

So there are some learnings we took out of it. But that experience with Tripadvisor was disappointing.

More reading

• 2 rapidly growing ASX shares to buy
• Tesla and Palantir were some of the most popular US shares last week
• Better buy: Amazon vs. GameStop
• Tesla stock: headed to $1,071?
• Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares are still cheap: fundie

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Tony Yoo owns shares of Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Amazon, Booking Holdings, Tesla, and TripAdvisor and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $1920 calls on Amazon and short January 2022 $1940 calls on Amazon. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon, Booking Holdings, Dominos Pizza Enterprises Limited, and TripAdvisor. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

The post The stock that I’d hold for the next 5 years: fundie appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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With interest rates on term deposits likely to remain at low levels for many years to come, dividend shares remain a great way to earn a passive income.

But which dividend shares should you buy? Two quality options are listed below:

Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd (ASX: ANZ)

With the banking sector over the worst of its issues, now could be a good time to invest if you don’t already have exposure to it. Especially given the booming housing market and the relaxing of responsible lending rules. This should be supportive of mortgage loan growth in the near term.

Another positive is that APRA has removed all dividend payment restrictions. This is likely to lead to some generous dividend payments over the coming years, particularly given ANZ’s strong capital position.

Morgans is positive on the company. It recently put an add rating on its shares and lifted the price target on them to $31.00.

The broker is forecasting a $1.45 per share dividend in FY 2021 and a $1.61 per share dividend in FY 2022. Based on the current ANZ share price, this represents fully franked yields of 5% and 5.5%, respectively.

Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX: SHL)

Sonic Healthcare is a global healthcare provider with specialist operations in laboratory medicine, pathology, diagnostic imaging, radiology, general practice medicine, and corporate medical services.

Since listing on the ASX in 1987 as a single laboratory, Sonic has grown to become one of the world’s leading healthcare providers with operations in Australasia, Europe and North America. It now employs more than 1,500 pathologists and radiologists, and more than 10,000 medical scientists, radiographers, sonographers, technicians and nurses.

Thanks largely to COVID-19 testing, demand for its services has been strong in FY 2021. This has underpinned very strong sales and earnings growth. And with COVID-19 not going away despite the rollout of vaccines, Sonic looks well-placed to continue its strong growth into FY 2022.

Credit Suisse is a fan of the company and has an outperform rating and $40.00 price target on its shares.

The broker is forecasting a 93 cents per share partially franked dividend in FY 2021 and a 97 cents per share dividend in FY 2022. Based on the current Sonic Healthcare share price, this will mean yields of 2.6% and 2.7%, respectively.

More reading

• ASX 200 rises, Zip (ASX:Z1P) flies, bank ratings upgraded
• Why Westpac (ASX:WBC) could be about to deliver a dividend surge
• Why the NAB (ASX:NAB) share price could push higher from here
• ANZ (ASX:ANZ) share price dips as bank focuses on AI automation
• Why NAB (ASX:NAB) and other bank shares are on watch today

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Sonic Healthcare Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Are you looking for some small cap ASX shares to add to your watchlist? Then you might want to take a look at the ones listed below.

Here’s why they are worth keeping a close eye on:

Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8)

Audinate is a digital audio-visual networking technologies provider best known for its industry-leading Dante audio over IP networking solution. This solution is used widely across a number of industries and is dominating the competition. For example, at the last count, the number of Dante enabled products manufactured by its customers was eight times greater than its nearest rival. Although the pandemic hit demand hard, it is rebounding strongly now. During the six months ended 31 December, Audinate reported revenue of US$11.1 million. This was flat on the prior corresponding (and COVID-free) period and up 19.5% on the second half of FY 2020.

Nitro Software Ltd (ASX: NTO)

Nitro Software is a software company that is aiming to drive digital transformation in organisations around the world. Its key solution is the Nitro Productivity Suite. This provides integrated PDF productivity and electronic signature tools to customers through a horizontal, software-as-a-service, and desktop-based software solution. Demand has been strong for the Nitro Productivity Suite, leading to the company guiding to annualised recurring revenue (ARR) of $39 million to $42 million in FY 2021. This represents year on year growth of 41% to 51.6%.

Over The Wire Holdings Ltd (ASX: OTW)

Over The Wire is a telecommunications, cloud, and IT solutions provider which has been growing at a solid rate in recent years. Positively, this has continued in FY 2021, with the company releasing a very strong half year update in February. For the six months ended 31 December, Over The Wire reported a 17% increase in revenue to $50.3 million and a 28% jump in EBITDA to $10.5 million. Positively, almost all of its revenue is now recurring, with recurring revenue growing 25% to $45.9 million.

More reading

• 2 small cap ASX tech shares to buy now
• ASX stock of the day: Nitro Software (ASX:NTO) shares rocket 11%
• 4 exciting small cap ASX shares to watch
• 2 small cap ASX shares to watch closely
• Is this the best small cap ASX share to buy now?

James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of AUDINATEGL FPO and Over The Wire Holdings Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended AUDINATEGL FPO, Nitro Software Limited, and Over The Wire Holdings Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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There are some ASX dividend shares that have large and consistent dividends. Some businesses regularly grow their dividends for shareholders.

In a world with low inflation and low interest rates, a large and growing dividend might be interesting.

These two businesses have sizeable expected dividend yields for the FY21 year:

JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX: JBH)

JB Hi-Fi is one of the largest ASX retail shares. It has JB Hi-Fi Australia, The Good Guys and JB Hi-Fi New Zealand.

The company has been growing its dividend each year since 2013, which is a fairly long record for the ASX.

JB Hi-Fi’s FY21 half-year result was no exception. The board increased its interim dividend by 81.8% to $1.80 per share, which represent a payout ratio of 65%.

The ASX dividend share says that its performance is underpinned by five unique competitive advantages. Its scale, the low cost operating model, quality store locations, supplier partnerships and multichannel capability.

JB Hi-Fi says that its low cost of doing business relative to retail peers is driven by productive floor space with high sales per square metre, a continued focus on productivity and minimising unnecessary expenditure, which enables the company to maintain low prices (with gross margins of around 22%).

The company saw online sales rise by 161.7% to $678.8 million. The key JB Hi-Fi Australia division saw earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rise 57.5% and the EBIT margin climbed 214 basis points to 9.8%.

At the current JB Hi-Fi share price, it has a trailing grossed-up dividend yield of 7.3%.

Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL)

Coles is the second largest supermarket business on the ASX behind Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW). It used to be part of Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES). Wesfarmers has a track record for shareholder returns.

The supermarket business hasn’t been listed as its own entity for long, but the business is creating a track record for reliable and growing dividends.

In the latest result, being the FY21 half-year result, the ASX dividend share grew its interim dividend by 10% to $0.33 per share. That was driven by a 8.1% increase in sales revenue, a 12.1% rise in EBIT and a 14.5% increase of earnings per share (EPS) to 42 cents.

Coles said that in the first six weeks of the third quarter, sales growth was 3.3%, although there continues to be a significant variation in sales performance between states and store locations. Online sales growth has moderated to 37%.

As the business begins to cycle the COVID-19 impacts in the second half of FY21, supermarkets sales and EBIT growth are expected to face challenges relative to the prior corresponding period.

Indeed, Coles actually warned that: “Depending on COVID-19, vaccine roll out and efficacy, and other factors, sales in the supermarket sector may moderate significantly or even decline in the second half of FY21 and into FY22”.

At the current Coles share price, it has a grossed-up dividend yield of 5.5%.

More reading

• ASX 200 Weekly Wrap: ASX sees 7,000 points once more
• Is the Coles (ASX:COL) share price a buy today?
• Fears of new supermarket war could hit Coles (ASX:COL) and Woolworths (ASX:WOW)
• Telstra (ASX:TLS) and 2 other ASX dividend shares offer yields over 5% today
• 2 excellent ASX dividend shares to buy today

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of COLESGROUP DEF SET, Wesfarmers Limited, and Woolworths Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

The post 2 ASX dividend shares with large yields and consistent payouts appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• 3 exciting small cap ASX shares for your watchlist
• 2 ASX dividend shares with large yields and consistent payouts
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Wednesday
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• A new CEO for AusPost, The upside of closed borders, and a Budget surplus by 2025? Motley Fool CIO Scott Phillips on Sky News

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Kate O’Brien owns shares of Apple and Rio Tinto Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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