The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has clearly gotten off on the wrong side of the bed this Monday. In a shaky start to the trading week so far, the ASX 200 is currently down a nasty 0.86% at around 7,050 points. But it's been far better for the Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD) share price.
The company is outperforming the broader market today, currently enjoying a rebound with its shares up 2.12% to $34.865 each at the time of writing. This comes after Ampol reported some solid half-year results this morning.
As we covered earlier today, Ampol reported an 83% rise in revenues to $11.33 billion. That helped lift statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) by 114% to $695.9 million. Sales of fuel were up 4% to 11.5 billion litres.
Ampol announces biggest dividend in history
But perhaps the biggest piece of news in Ampol's half-year report was the dividend. Ampol has announced an interim dividend of $1.20 per share, fully franked.
Not only is this the largest interim dividend Ampol has ever paid out, but it also represents a whopping increase of 130% over last year's interim dividend of 52 cents per share. In fact, this new interim dividend is larger than the last interim dividend and Ampol's previous final dividend of 41 cents per share put together.
Ampol shares will trade ex-dividend for this payment on 2 September next month. Shareholders will then receive the payout on 28 September. Investors will have no choice but to receive this dividend in cash, as the company is currently not operating a dividend reinvestment plan (DRP).
Ampol's previous 12 months of dividends add up to 93 cents per share, which gives the shares a trailing dividend yield of 2.72% at current pricing.
However, once the new dividend is paid out on 28 September, the petroleum company will have a trailing yield of 4.71%. So we can see from these metrics how significant this dividend hike will be for Ampol shares and investors.
At the current Ampol share price, this ASX 200 energy share has a market capitalisation of $8.3 billion. Ampol shares are now up 17% year to date.
