Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shareholders will become a little richer today as the company pays out its latest dividend.
The banking giant is rewarding eligible investors with a fully franked interim dividend of 61 cents per share.
At Thursday's market close, the Westpac share price ended 0.46% higher at $19.62.
This came off the back of a positive day across the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) which finished up 0.31%.
Below we take a look at the details surrounding the company's interim dividend.
Westpac distributes its H1 FY22 dividend
Westpac delivered a subdued performance across its key metrics for the first half of the 2022 financial year.
In summary, revenue fell 8% to $10,230 million over the prior corresponding period. This was driven by challenging trading conditions across the company's consumer and business segments.
And despite operating costs falling by 10% to $5,373 million, Westpac reported a 12% decrease in cash earnings to $3,095 million.
Nonetheless, the board opted to ramp up its interim dividend by 5.2% over the prior comparable period (H1 FY21).
This is in line with the capital management framework, which has a targeted dividend payout ratio of between 60% and 75%.
Based on the current share price, Westpac has a healthy dividend yield of 6.14% – the second largest among the big four banks behind Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) at 6.56%.
Westpac share price snapshot
A disappointing past few weeks on the ASX has led the Westpac share price to tumble almost 20% in June.
This has dragged the bank's shares to a loss of 8% this year to date. They are also down 24% over the past 12 months.
It's worth noting that Westpac shares hit a 52-week low of $18.80 last Friday before rebounding in the days following.
Westpac has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 14.37 and a market capitalisation of roughly $68.38 billion.
