Plato Investment Management has upgraded its gross yield forecast for the ASX 200 from 4.2% at the start of the year to 5.2%.
This was in light of dividends declared so far this year, some $38 billion, which was $17 billion more than in 2020 and $10 billion more than in 2019.
As a result, the firm’s Australian Shares fund was now targeting a gross yield of more than 8% over the next 12 months.
Don Hamson, managing director of Plato, said: “Things are looking pretty good which is why we’ve been quite bullish on dividends this year. One of the reasons why the numbers are so big and dividends are going up so much is that for the first year in living memory we’ve had a positive outlook for all the big dividend stocks in the market.
“So, we are having a record year for dividends across the board and indeed compared to last year, August reporting season has seen average dividend increases of 66%. It’s a huge turnaround suggesting the economy is going really well and we’ve just seen a positive quarter in the national accounts for the June quarter.”
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