The AGL Energy Limited (ASX: AGL) share price is seeing some green shoots today. At the time of writing, AGL shares are trading at $6.91, down a nasty 3.76% for the day.
However, zoom out and the picture gets a lot bleaker the further you go. Since last Wednesday, AGL shares have lost around 6.3% of their value, seeing as the company was trading at $7.35 a share a week ago.
Year to date, AGL is now down by 43.23%. Over the past 12 months, these losses climb to 55.73%. And over the past 5 years, shareholders have had to watch AGL shares lose more than 63% of their value. In fact, since AGL's last share price peak back in 2017, this company is now down more than 75%. Ouch.
To find the last time AGL shares have seen the levels we are at today, you'd have to go back to 2003.
But let's focus on the past week. So what has sent AGL to new multi-decade lows in the past 5 trading days?
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AGL shares drop from dividend, earnings report
Well, it's not as bad as investors might fear. AGL shares are down today because the company has just gone ex-dividend for its upcoming shareholder payout. In its FY21 earnings report that AGL released on 12 August, AGL announced a final dividend of 34 cents per share, to be paid out on 29 September.
The ex-dividend date for this payment is… today. Thus, the value of this dividend has been taken out of the current AGL share price by the markets. That's because any new AGL investors from today won't be eligible for this dividend.
On yesterday's closing share price of $7.16, this dividend was worth a yield of 4.75% just on its own. That's partly why we have seen such a steep fall in AGL shares over the past week.
But we must also look at the impact of AGL's FY21 earnings report, which AGL delivered to investors just over a fortnight ago. After all, AGL shares have fallen around 10% since the time this report was released.
So, as we covered at the time, AGL reported revenue losses of 10%. As well as a 33.5% drop in underlying profits and a 31.6% fall in earnings per share (EPS). It also trimmed its dividend policy to help fund its upcoming demerger. This demerger, which will see AGL's generation and retail businesses separate, is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of FY2022.
So it's likely that a combination of AGL's poorly received earnings report, together with the company going ex-dividend today, is responsible for AGL shares' recent run of bad fortune.
At the current AGL share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $4.3 billion and a trailing dividend yield of 9.45%.
