Buy Hold Sell: 5 stocks with monster dividends in 2024

Don Hamson (BUY): It's a buy from us. We have liked Ampol for a long time. They've got a lot of excess franking credits in their franking credit balance, so there's potential for special dividends down the line. Their refining margins were down in the December quarter, but the rest of their business is humming, so we love it.

Michael O'Neill (BUY): Buy. So in addition to Don's points, they do have a strategic infrastructure and a good network of property. If you think about refining margins in what people consider a sunset industry, the demand for refining is falling a lot slower than the removal of capacity. So margins should hold up and in the meantime, we quite like their strategy for generating more revenue from non-fuel retail.

Bendigo & Adelaide Bank (ASX: BEN)

Michael O'Neill (HOLD): It's a hold. Attractive dividend. Fully franked. Right now, the banks are in a good spot because there are no signs of any bad debt cycle, largely because of consumer savings buffers, but that doesn't detract from the fact that as a regional bank, it's at a structural disadvantage in terms of gathering low-cost deposit funding, and in terms of competing in what has been until recently, a very competitive mortgage market. In banking, scale is key - whether it's investing in simplification programmes, or digital and also meeting the regulatory hurdle for cyber and fraud, which is ever-increasing.

Don Hamson (HOLD): It's a hold for us too and for exactly the same reasons. I think you read my songbook. We'd much prefer the larger banks because there are definitely economies of scale in every part of their business or even Macquarie's done very well in that market because they've cherry-picked the high-networth people. The regionals are going to struggle, I think. Yes, the yield's not bad, but it still doesn't stand up to a couple of the bigger guys. You can get them on the 7-8% yield. So it's very much a hold for us.

Atlas Arteria (ASX: ALX)

Don Hamson (SELL): That's a sell for us. On every criteria we have - value, outlook, etc. It still hasn't seen all the impacts of higher interest rates come through. It's definitely a sell from us.

Michael O'Neill (HOLD): It's a hold for us. That over 7% yield should be sustainable, certainly not growing for the reasons Don points out, but it is supported by predictable toll road revenues. However, there is one caveat - the road being built next to theirs, I94, will come on and compete with their Chicago Skyway acquisition. They own two-thirds of that business.

Michael O'Neill (BUY): Aurizon. So Aurizon's paying a yield of over 6.5%. At their result, they've just come out and said that their payout ratio could well be lifted. They're paying down debt and they've also already sunk capital into some strategic initiatives that they will deliver. Now, 60% of the value in the business is a regulated asset where they've just got a reset in terms of earnings. 40% is in coal haulage for some top-tier, low-cost producers of coal - likely that this business is going to be stable for longer because met coal is so important for countries such as India. So we see this as a company with a sustainable and growing yield.

Don Hamson (BUY): I'm pushing this stock because I think it's defied the critics who have been calling it down for the last two years as interest rates have risen. It's a consumer discretionary stock, JB Hi-Fi. I could have picked Super Retail (ASX: SUL) as well. They're both very similar. It has a 7% yield, it actually reported this week with better-than-expected results and it's still trading on about a 7% yield. So it's been a great performer for us over the last couple of years.