When an Australian bank stock announces a new dividend payment, it's normally big ASX news. After all, the big four banks like National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) are some of the largest and most prolific dividend payers on the entire ASX.
Well, that happens to be the case for NAB shares right now. Late last week, NAB revealed its latest half-year results. As we covered at the time, these results were well-received by investors. The market gave NAB shares a thumbs up, despite some rather sobering numbers being thrown up.
For the six months ended 31 March 2024, NAB revealed a 0.9% drop in net operating income to $10.14 billion. Cash earnings also fell by 12.8% to $3.55 billion.
The bank saw declines in almost all of its segments, including Business, Private Banking and Corporate and Institutional Banking. But its Personal Banking division copped it the worst. NAB reported a 29.6% drop in divisional cash earnings to $553 million.
But perhaps investors were comforted by NAB's capital return plans. The bank announced a new $1.5 billion on-market share buyback program and an increase to its 2024 interim dividend.
How to secure the next NAB dividend
NAB stock's next dividend payment will come in at 84 cents per share, fully franked, of course. This dividend represents a 1.5% increase from last year's interim dividend of 83 cents per share. It also exactly matches December's final dividend of 84 cents per share.
It's the largest interim dividend NAB has paid out in four years – since 2020's pre-COVID interim payment of 30 cents per share.
However, if you don't already own NAB shares, time is running out to secure this payout.
That's because NAB is scheduled to trade ex-dividend for this upcoming interim shareholder paycheque tomorrow, 7 May.
As we warned last week, this means that only investors who own NAB shares as of today's market close will be on the eligibility list to secure this dividend. Anyone who buys NAB shares from tomorrow onwards will miss out this time.
For those eligible investors who have NAB shares to their name as of 4pm this afternoon, the dividend pay date has been set for 3 July.
In the meantime, those same investors also have until 9 May to opt into the optional dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) NAB is running for this dividend payment. That's if they wish to receive additional NAB shares in lieu of the traditional cash payment.
At the current NAB stock price, this ASX 200 bank share has a dividend yield of 4.84%.
