If you're an income investor and want to snap up the upcoming BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) dividend then you will have to act fast.
That's because the Big Australian's shares will be trading ex-dividend in the coming days.
Once the ex-dividend date has been reached, the rights to the dividend will be settled and new buyers won't be entitled to receive it.
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The BHP dividend
Last month, BHP released its FY 2023 results and reported a 17% decline in revenue to US$53.8 billion and a 31% decline in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to US$28 billion.
While this looks very poor on paper, it was largely in line with the market's expectations and was due to a combination of inflationary pressures on costs and lower prices of key commodities.
Softer profits of course meant a softer BHP dividend. The company's board declared a fully franked final dividend of 80 US cents per share for the period, bringing its total fully franked dividends to US$1.70 per share for FY 2023. This represents a 48% decline from what the mining giant paid to shareholders in FY 2022.
If you want to receive BHP's final dividend of 80 US cents per share, which equates to 124.5 Australian cents at current exchange rates, then you will need to buy the miner's shares before they trade ex-dividend on Thursday 7 September. This means you need to be on BHP's share register at the close of play on Wednesday.
After which, eligible shareholders can look forward to receiving this payout later this month on 28 September. And it certainly will be a nice boost for income investors. Based on the current BHP share price of $45.55, this final dividend is the equivalent of a 2.7% dividend yield.
