Looking to bag the boosted Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) dividend?
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) oil and gas stock reported on its half year results this morning.
Passive income investors, here's what you need to know.
What's happening with the Santos dividend?
Many of the financial metrics in H1 2023 were down from H1 2022, with a significant impact from a 26% year on year decline in the company's average realised oil price. Still, Santos had a highly profitable year.
First-half revenue came in at US$2.97 billion, down 21% year on year. And while net profit was also down 32% from H1 2022, Santos still reported net profit of US$790 million for the six months ending 30 June.
And free cash flow from operations, while also down 34% year on year, was still a robust US$1.13 billion.
That strong free cash flow resulted in the board declaring an interim Santos dividend of 8.7 US cents per share, unfranked. That's up 14% from last year's interim dividend. And it equates to a total return to shareholders of US$283 million.
Commenting on the company's strategy, Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said, "Our goal is to strike the right balance between disciplined and phased major project spend, returns to shareholders, and investment in new energy solutions to meet customer demand."
Now, you may have noticed that the dividend is quoted in US currency. Santos will use the exchange rate on 1 September to determine the payout in Aussie dollars.
At the current exchange rate of 64.39 cents to the US dollar, the Santos dividend works out to 13.5 Aussie cents per share. At the current Santos share price of $7.71 that equates to a pending yield of 1.8% from the interim dividend alone.
If you're looking to grab that dividend, you'll want to own Santos shares at market close on Friday, 25 August. The stock trades ex-dividend on Monday, 28 August.
Eligible investors can expect that passive income to land in their bank account on 28 September.
The company's Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) is not in effect for this payout.
