In afternoon trade on Thursday, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares are edging higher.
At the time of writing, the mining giant's shares are up slightly to $40.54.
However, despite this and some recent solid gains, the BHP share price is still trading lower year to date.
What if you'd invested $1,000 in BHP shares at the start of the year?
While BHP shares are trading lower year to date, that's only telling you half the story. It certainly has been an eventful year for the Big Australian!
Firstly, at the start of the year, BHP's shares were fetching $41.50. This means that a $1,000 investment would have yielded you approximately 24 shares.
Today, those shares are worth $972.06, which means you've lost almost $28.00 from your original investment. Or have you?
The full story
BHP has gone through a major transformation this year. This saw the Big Australian offload its petroleum assets to Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) in exchange for a stake in the energy giant.
This stake was then distributed to eligible shareholders, who received one newly issued Woodside share for every 5.534 BHP shares they held at the close of play on Thursday 26 May 2022.
This means that if you owned 24 BHP shares, you would have been granted 4 new Woodside shares.
So, with the Woodside share price currently fetching $34.46, these shares have a value of $137.84, which brings the value of your investment to $1,109.90. Now you're up over 10% on your original $1,000 investment!
Don't forget the dividends!
BHP and Woodside have both rewarded their shareholders with generous dividends this year.
In FY 2022, BHP paid shareholders total fully franked dividends of approximately $4.63 per share. Whereas, since the demerger, Woodside has paid a $1.60 per share fully franked dividend to shareholders. This means that you would have received the following:
- 24 x $4.63 = $111.12
- 4 x $1.60 = $6.40
All in all, including dividends, this brings the value of your investment to $1,227.42, which represents a total return of almost 23%.
No wonder BHP shares have been so popular with investors this year!
