The Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price is pushing higher on Friday morning.
This follows the release of the lithium miner's half-year results, which revealed huge sales and earnings growth thanks strong production growth and sky high lithium prices.
In case you missed it, Pilbara Minerals posted a 647% increase in revenue to $2.18 billion and a 989% increase in profit after tax to $1.24 billion.
But it gets even better for shareholders. With Pilbara Minerals generating free cash flow, its cash balance improved by a whopping $1.63 billion to $2.23 billion over the last six months.
This allowed the company to declare the inaugural Pilbara Minerals dividend.
The Pilbara Minerals dividend
The Pilbara Minerals board has elected to reward its shareholders with an 11 cents per share fully franked interim dividend. This represents a 30% free cash flow payout ratio and is the equivalent of a $329.8 million return.
Investors will have to act quickly if they want to receive this dividend. Its shares will trade ex-dividend next week on 2 March. After which, eligible shareholders can look forward to receiving this payment later in the month on 24 March.
Pilbara Minerals' Managing Director and CEO, Dale Henderson, labelled the dividend payment as a milestone for the company. He said:
This result has enabled the Board to declare an inaugural fully franked interim dividend of 11 cents per share. This is a huge milestone for Pilbara Minerals, and we are very pleased to be able to reward our shareholders who have had faith and stuck with us over the journey.
More dividends to come?
The good news is that analysts expect further dividends from the company in the future.
According to a note out of Goldman Sachs, it estimates that there will be a final dividend of approximately 20 cents per share declared in August, bringing the Pilbara Minerals dividend to a total of 31 cents per share in FY 2023.
Based on its last close price, this was the equivalent of a 7% dividend yield.
