The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price isn't having a great time of it so far this Friday. At the time of writing, Qantas shares have opened down by around 0.58% at $5.19. That's a long way from this company's COVID lows of 2020 ($2.36 a share), but still well off the airline's 52-week high of $5.97 a share. Sadly, it's also a long way from Qantas' pre-COVID highs of over $7 a share.
But investors know Qantas, as an ASX 200 travel share, has had a rough trot over the past two years or so. Saying that, it has also been a market beater over 2022 so far, if only just. Qantas remains up by 0.58% over the year to date. In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) remains in the red with a loss of 1.45% over the same period.
So now that we're well into 2022, many investors might be wondering what the current dividend yield for Qantas shares is. After all, Qantas used to be known as a solid dividend share before the pandemic.
Qantas shares: What's the dividend yield?
Well, unfortunately, some investors might find the answer to this question is depressingly short. Qantas is not currently an ASX dividend share, since it hasn't doled out a shareholder payment since September 2019. Thus, Qantas shares do not currently have a dividend yield.
As we covered earlier this week, Qantas' books are yet to return to the black following the massive disruption that COVID had on its business model. In fact, during Qantas' last earnings report – the half-year earnings delivered in February covering the six months to 31 December 2021 – the airline reported an underlying loss before tax of $1.28 billion.
For a company to fund a dividend, conventional wisdom dictates that it needs to be bringing in healthy profits first. Dividends are funded from profits after all. And Qantas just isn't back there yet.
At the current Qantas share price, this ASX 200 travel share has a market capitalisation of $9.83 billion, but with a dividend yield of 0%.
