Longtime shareholders of Comcast (CMCSA -0.05%) haven't had much of a reason to celebrate over the last five years. The stock price of the cable, communications, and entertainment giant has fallen 58% during that time.
Of course, that's a little bit misleading. Five years ago was the peak of the company's pandemic-era success, when its TV and streaming services like Peacock and NBC and its Xfinity home internet service were seeing record demand from stay-at-home consumers.
NASDAQ: CMCSA
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But it's not all bad news. Although Comcast shares trade at a 12-year low, its dividend yield is now at an all-time high of more than 6%!
For dividend investors, especially those nearing retirement, this looks like a golden opportunity to pick up a juicy yield on the cheap. The only question is, how cheap?
Here's how many shares of Comcast stock you'd need to buy to get $5,352.60 in annual dividends.
Why $5,352.60?
Everyone's financial situation is different; how much income you need to derive from dividend stocks will vary according to your portfolio and lifestyle, so $5,352.60 may not be the right number for you.
But $5,352 is the approximate median monthly full-time wage in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So, if your portfolio consisted of 12 dividend-paying investments that each paid out $5,352/year, they would provide the same amount of income as the median full-time job ($64,224/year).
Image source: Getty Images.
Since Comcast's per-share dividend of $0.33/quarter amounts to $1.32/year, you would need 4,055 shares to yield exactly $5,352.60 in the current year. Of course, this could go up in future years if the dividend is raised ... or down if the dividend is cut.
At Comcast's current stock price of $21.52/share, 4,055 shares would cost you $87,263.60. That's much more than most people just have lying around! But by gradually investing over time -- and by reinvesting dividends during the preretirement years -- building up a substantial position in a dividend-paying stock like Comcast can provide a steady stream of income in retirement.
