It's been a phenomenal 12 months to own any of the big four ASX bank stocks, including $ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ANZ.AU)$.
All four of the major banks have notched up share price rises of at least 20% over the past 12 months.
Unusually, it has been $Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AU)$ that has led the pack with these gains. Westpac shares have ballooned by more than 52% since this time last year.
$CommBank (CBA.AU)$ is next up. The CBA share price has shot up by almost 40% since September 2023.
$National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.AU)$ has added a compelling 32.7% over the same period.
But ANZ stock has been the laggard. Its share price has risen by a solid 20.6% over the past 12 months. That's obviously not a gain to turn one's nose up against, but it would probably still make ANZ shareholders feel a little jealous.
However, this relative share price sluggishness has one potential upside: ANZ stock appears to now be the leader amongst the big four in terms of dividends.
ANZ stock: The ASX bank dividend king?
Today, ANZ shares are trading on a trailing dividend yield of 5.7%.
That compares very favourably with NAB and Westpac, which currently have yields of 4.28% and 4.43%, respectively.
This makes CBA's dividend yield of 3.28% look inadequate.
So, on the surface, it looks as though ANZ is the clear winner here, at least among the big four. Even extending to the other, smaller ASX banks, ANZ looks compelling. It beats out $Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (BEN.AU)$'s current 5.2% offering and only just loses to $Bank of Queensland Ltd (BOQ.AU)$'s 5.86%.
Unlike ANZ, BOQ has been cutting its annual dividends since 2022, so even that ASX bank share arguably comes up short.
There is one caveat we have to mention before crowning ANZ stock as the ASX bank dividend king though. Unlike every other ASX bank, ANZ doesn't pay fully franked dividends anymore. Its last two dividend payments have come only partially franked at 56% and 65%, respectively.
Now, if ANZ's dividends came unfranked, the value of the franking credits from NAB and Westpac would be enough to make those dividends more valuable for most investors.
However, ANZ stock's partial franking is enough to keep this ASX bank on top, at least for now.
As such, we can conclude that ANZ is indeed sporting the best big four bank dividend yield on the ASX today. Let's see if it can keep its crown going into 2025.
