One of the biggest names on the ASX 200 reported its latest earnings yesterday. That name is Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES), the sprawling conglomerate behind famous retailers like Bunnings, OfficeWorks and Kmart. And income investors, in particular, will be delighted by the latest Wesfarmers dividend.
As we covered on Thursday, these earnings have been well received by investors, who sent the Wesfarmers share price up to a fresh new 52-week high yesterday.
It's not hard to see why. As my Fool colleague dug into, Wesfarmers delivered a pleasing set of green figures. Revenues for the six months to 31 December rose by 0.5% to $22.67 billion.
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were up 1.6% to $2.2 billion, while net profits after tax (NPAT) vaulted 3% higher to $1.43 billion.
But let's talk about the Wesfarmers dividend.
What's new with the Wesfarmers dividend?
Along with the rest of the company's metrics, Wesfarmers revealed a higher dividend that's now in store for shareholders. The company's upcoming interim dividend will be worth 91 cents per share, replete with full franking credits (as is the norm for Wesfarmers).
This newly-revealed payment is a rather historically important one for Wesfarmers.
For one, it represents a 3.4% increase over last year's interim dividend worth 88 cents per share. Together with October's final dividend of $1.03 per share, investors are now in line to bank a total of $1.94 in dividends per share over the 2024 financial year. Again, that is an increase over the $1.88 those investors enjoyed over FY23.
But this payment is also the highest interim dividend that Wesfarmers will have paid out since April 2019. And that payment was partially funded by Wesfarmers' old ownership of Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL). Coles was spun out of Wesfarmers' portfolio back in late 2018.
If anyone who doesn't currently own Wesfarmers shares wishes to secure this upcoming payout, they will need to own Wesfarmers shares by the ex-dividend date of 20 February (next Tuesday).
Wesfarmers is currently running a dividend reinvestment plan (DRP), which will be active for this dividend payment. For any investors who might wish to receive additional Wesfarmers shares in lieu of the traditional cash payment, they will need to enrol in the DRP by 22 February.
Payment day will then roll around on 27 March next month.
At the current Wesfarmers share price of $61.91, this ASX 200 conglomerate has a trailing dividend yield of 3.09%. Plugging in the newly announced dividend, we get a forward dividend yield of 3.13%.
