Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

There are two things you want out of a good income stock - a solid yield and the ability to grow that yield over time. 

In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Livewire's Chris Conway hosts Peter Gardner from Plato Asset Management and Sean Roger from Perpetual to run the ruler over five dividend stocks with better-than-market yields and expected dividend growth.

We ran a screen that filtered companies with a market cap above $1 billion, offering a one-year forward yield of more than 4% (better than the market) and projected dividend growth based on consensus earnings forecasts.

The screen threw up some interesting names across consumer discretionary, financial services and transport, but are these stocks worth adding to your watchlist, according to the pros? Find out here.

The yield on the ASX has now been below 4% for quite some time, but that doesn't mean there's no income opportunities for Australian investors ready to do the work.

In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Livewire's Chris Conway hosts Peter Gardner from Plato Asset Management and Sean Roger from Perpetual to discuss whether we're in a structurally-lower income environment or whether it's just a lull.

They also reveal the sectors where they're still finding reliable income and what they're avoiding right now. Finally they each share one ASX income stock idea the rest of the market might be missing for 2026.

Strong dividends have always been one of the ASX's big calling cards, so it might surprise you to learn that Australian dividends actually shrank 6.7% to $63.5 billion in 2025, according to the Capital Group Global Equity Study.

Now reporting season has thrown up some solid dividend results from Telstra, Woolworths, BHP and Evolution Mining to name a few, and our biggest income stocks - namely the banks and miners - are delivering strong returns.

So will 2026 be a return to form for Aussie income stocks, and which are the companies that should be top of your radar?

In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Peter Gardner from Plato Asset Management and Sean Roger from Perpetual join Livewire's Chris Conway to give their ratings on some of the most-tipped income stocks for 2026 from our readers and share a pick of their own.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
That might be the best way to sum up the February reporting season at the headline level. Of course, there is more nuance to it than that. 

The top end of town - the banks and miners in particular - enjoyed solid results and, often, spectacular share price moves; Woolworths up 14%, anyone? Throw into the mix a record high for BHP and a resurgent Commonwealth Bank, as the strong got stronger - 'twas the best of times.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you disappointed the market - even by a smidge in the case of a company like ZIP - you got hammered. This is not a new theme, given recent season history, but certainly a more pronounced one. 'Twas the worst of times. 

If that wasn't enough to navigate, casting a pall over the entire season was the chaos agent that is change. More specifically, AI-disruption, which apparently is threatening most small and mid-cap business models, while the top 20 are somehow immune. 

To help unpack one of the most colourful and important reporting seasons in the last decade, guest host, CommSec's James Gruber, was joined by David Lloyd from Ausbil Investment Management, and Dushko Bajic from First Sentier Investors. 

They discuss the big themes, key takeouts and, of course, all the big stocks - from the winners to the losers, and everything in between. If you're an investor in ASX stocks, you cannot miss this episode of Buy Hold Sell. 

This episode was recorded on Thursday, 26 February 2026.

As part of our 2026 Outlook Series, we asked you for your picks of the top ETFs for the year ahead, and in a recent episode of Buy Hold Sell, we ran the ruler over five of the most-picked ETFs.

But we like to keep our guests on their toes, which is why we're back with a bonus round of Buy Hold Sell to run through nine more of the ETFs that made the list. 

Back in the BHS hot seats are Daniel Kelly of Viola Private Wealth and Adam Dawes of Shaw and Partners to give the quick fire calls on ETFs covering everything from gold miners to Asian tech.

2 guests. 9 ETFs. 4 minutes. Hear how they got on. 

This episode was filmed on Wednesday, 11 February 2026.