The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price is climbing during morning trade, adding to its impressive gains last week.
This comes despite the mining giant not releasing any price-sensitive announcements to the ASX today.
At the time of writing, Rio Tinto shares are up 1.27% to $128.17 apiece.
Rio Tinto shares set to go ex-dividend
While the company has been quiet on the news front lately, investors are buying up Rio Tinto shares.
This is most likely because of the upcoming ex-dividend date for Rio Tinto shares.
Investors need to buy Rio Tinto shares before market close on Wednesday to be eligible for the final dividend. The ex-dividend date is on Thursday 10 March.
It's worth noting though that historically when a company reaches its ex-dividend day, its shares tend to fall in proportion to the dividend paid out. This is because investors tend to sell off the company's shares after securing the dividend.
When can Rio Tinto shareholders expect payment?
For those who are eligible for the Rio Tinto dividend, shareholders will receive a total payment of $6.6284 per share on 21 April. This comprises the 2021 final dividend of $5.7704 per share and a $0.8580 per share special dividend.
They are also both fully franked which means shareholders can expect to receive tax credits from this.
In addition, investors can elect for the dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) which will add a portion of shares to their portfolio instead.
There is no DRP discount rate and the last election date for shareholders to opt-in is on 29 March.
The $16.8 billion full-year dividend represents a payout of 79% of underlying earnings. This is above management's policy of retuning between 40% to 60% of underlying earnings to shareholders.
Rio Tinto share price snapshot
Since the beginning of 2022, the Rio Tinto share price has gained 26% but is up around 4% in the last 12 months.
The company's shares reached a 52-week low of $87.28 in November, before zipping 45% higher from today's price.
Rio Tinto commands a market capitalisation of roughly $46.98 billion and has a trailing dividend yield of 10.09%.
