It's been a rough time for the Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) share price of late. Back on 22 August, Coles shares were riding high. The ASX 200 grocer had just claimed a new 52-week high of $19.65 a share and all was looking well.
But then Coles released its full-year earnings for FY2022, and investors got something of a reality check. Today, Coles shares are going for $17.85, a good 8% or so off of that all-time high we saw last month. Earlier this week, the company descended as low as $17.27 a share.
It seems investors didn't exactly like what they saw in Coles' earnings report.
The sueprmarket operator announced a 2% rise in sales revenue to $3.4 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at $3.4 billion, a rise of 0.2% over the prior year. At the time, Coles CEO Steven Cain warned investors that Coles was facing "the ongoing headwind of rising cost inflation".
But let's talk about the Coles dividend.
Image source: Getty Images
How to bag the next Coles dividend
So unlike arch-rival Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW), Coles actually gave its investors a dividend pay rise last month. The company declared a final dividend of 30 cents per share, fully franked. That represents a pleasing 17.85% increase over FY21's final dividend of 28 cents per share.
It also means that Coles will be paying an annual total of 63 cents in dividends per share for FY22, a 3.3% rise over FY21's 61 cents per share total.
So what do investors need to do to secure this upcoming dividend? Well, they will need to act fast. Coles shares are scheduled to trade ex-dividend for this final dividend payment tomorrow, 2 September.
That means that from tomorrow, no new investors will be eligible to receive this dividend. So if investors want to receive this paycheque, they will need to own Coles shares by the end of this trading day.
So expect a drop in the Coles share price when the company trades ex-dividend tomorrow. This will reflect the value of this dividend payment leaving the Coles share price.
Investors will then receive this dividend payment on 28 September later this month.
If investors wish to participate in Coles' dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) and receive additional Coles shares instead of a cash payment, they will need to nominate for the DRP before next Tuesday, 6 September.
When this dividend is eventually paid out, it will give Coles shares a dividend yield of 3.54% based on the current pricing.
