Today is a good day to be a Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) shareholder.
That's because, if you're an eligible shareholder, today you will be receiving the mining giant's latest dividend payment.
The Rio Tinto dividend
In February, Rio Tinto released its full-year results for the 12 months ended 31 December.
Due to weaker commodity prices and inflationary pressures, the miner reported a 13% decline in revenue to US$55,554 million and a sizeable 41% reduction in net profit after tax to US$12,420 million.
As you might expect, this profit decline put pressure on the Rio Tinto dividend for FY 2022. The mining giant's board elected to cut its fully franked final dividend by 46% to US$2.25 per share.
This brought the miner's dividend to a total of US$4.92 per share in FY 2022, which is a 38% reduction on what was paid in FY 2021. Nevertheless, it still equates to a massive total payout of US$8 billion (A$11.9 billion) for the year. To put that into context, this is larger than the market capitalisation of Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL).
That US$2.25 (A$3.35) per share dividend will be landing in bank accounts. Of course, that's unless you decided to take advantage of the Rio Tinto dividend reinvestment plan.
What's next?
The good news for shareholders is that Goldman Sachs believes stronger commodity prices and production growth will lead to a rebound in the Rio Tinto dividend in FY 2023.
Its analysts are forecasting a fully franked US$5.39 (A$8.00) per share dividend this year. Based on the current Rio Tinto share price of $123.19, this will mean a hefty 6.5% dividend yield for investors.
