Owners of BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares could have plenty going on in September. The ASX miner is about to send a lot of cash to shareholders.
The company recently reported its FY23 result, and with that came the announcement of the FY23 final dividend.
BHP dividend
In its FY23 result, BHP reported that revenue declined 17% to US$53.8 billion. Over the period, underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 31% to US$28 billion, profit from operations fell 33% to US$22.9 billion, and attributable profit sank 58% to US$12.9 billion.
All of these financial numbers going in the wrong direction led to the full-year dividend falling by around 44% to US$1.70 per share, fully franked. The annual dividend represented a dividend payout ratio of 64%. This means shareholders will have received around two-thirds of the FY23 profit once the FY23 final dividend payment goes through. Indeed, this could be one of the highlights this month.
BHP shares are going to go ex-dividend on 7 September 2023, so investors need to own a (small) slice of the company by the end of trading on 6 September 2023 if they want entitlement to the dividend. This US 80 cents per share dividend is going to be paid on 28 September 2023, so shareholders won't need to wait long for their payment.
The ASX mining share will release an estimate on 11 September 2023 as to what the payment is expected to be in Australian dollar terms.
Shareholders have until 11 September 2023 to elect to take part in the company's dividend re-investment plan (DRP) to receive new shares rather than cash.
What else could happen in September?
The next important event for the company is the conclusion of its FY24 first quarter, which is the three months to September 2023. We won't hear how the company has performed until it releases the operational revenue for that quarter on 18 October 2023.
I'd suggest that any developments or news regarding the Chinese economy could also have major implications for BHP shares. This is because a significant portion of its production (such as iron ore) is sold to Chinese customers.
We've been hearing for some time that China's economy has not bounced back strongly after the COVID-19 lockdowns and that the property and construction sectors are struggling.
The Australian Financial Review recently described the Chinese property market as being in "freefall". Any positive, or negative, changes about this could be quite influential on the BHP share price in September and the longer term.
BHP share price snapshot
As we can see on the chart below, the BHP share price is up 18% in the past year, while the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 6%.
