Westpac is one of the big 4 Australian banks, the second-largest mortgage lender and the largest bank in NSW. We covered the Australian Bank shares in detail previously, and the short story is that we don’t think banks are one of the shares to buy at this stage of the economic cycle.
Westpac and CBA have always focused on Australia and as a result, the Westpac share price is highly geared to the performance of the Sydney and Melbourne property prices.
It owns many sub-brands in its stable, with one of the most well known being the St George Bank.
Westpac Dividend Yield
The big 4 Australian banks account for 4 of the top 10 companies listed on the ASX. The top 300 asx companies are very heavily concentrated towards financials and miners because of the listed bank stocks’ size relative to the Australian share market.
The resulting heavy reliance on the banks, the broader market and the index fund (like ASX STW) poses a concentration risk for investors just investing in Australian index funds.
The year to date return of the banks shows a high degree of correlation in returns.
WBC Dividend History
Investors love banks for their high dividend yield. As almost all of Westpac’s earnings are from Australia, WBC dividends are usually fully franked.
Westpac dividend history shows it has increased the dividend every year up to this year before the pandemic.
WBC Dividend Dates
Final Payment Period: December
Interim Payment Period: June