It's been a bouncy but positive day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and many ASX 200 shares this Tuesday. After starting the week off on a strong footing yesterday, the ASX 200 is continuing that momentum today, with the index currently up 0.05%. But let's talk about what's happening with CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) shares.
CSL shares are not faring as well as the broader market, to put it nicely. In fact, the ASX 200 healthcare giant is having an awful day.
Yesterday, the CSL share price closed at $308.93. But this morning, those same shares opened at just $300.03 and are currently trading at $296.37. That's down a hefty 4.07% for the day thus far.
It seems investors are not too impressed with the full-year earnings report that the company dropped this morning.
As we covered at the time, these earnings contained some fairly impressive figures. CSL reported an 11% bump in revenues for the 12 months to 30 June to US$14.8 billion.
That helped push the company's net profit after tax before amortisation (NPATA) up by 11% to US$2.91 billion, or up 15% to US$3.01 billion in constant currency terms.
As my Fool colleague covered after market open, it seems that investors may have been disappointed by CSL's guidance for FY2025. The company is expecting to record revenue growth of between 5-7% for the 12 months to 30 June 2025, and an NPATA of between US$3.2 and US$3.3 billion.
But let's talk about the supersized dividend that CSL has just revealed.
CSL ups its dividend to new record high
This morning, CSL revealed that its final dividend for FY2024 would come in at US$1.45 per share. That's a healthy 12.4% rise over the final dividend of US$1.29 ($2.01) per share that investors received last year, as well as a 21.85% increase over April's interim dividend of US$1.19 ($1.80) per share.
We don't yet know whether this latest payment will be in Australian dollars, but at today's exchange rates, US$1.45 would equate to approximately $2.20 per share. Like April's interim dividend, it will not come with any franking credits attached.
Nevertheless, this is a big deal for CSL, as this latest dividend represents a record-high shareholder payout for the company.
However, shareholders will have to wait a while until this passive income arrives in their bank accounts. CSL has scheduled Monday, 9 September next month as this payment's ex-dividend date. So anyone wishing to bag this payout will have to own CSL shares by market close on Friday, 6 September.
The payment date will then roll around on 2 October.
CSL's dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) is not operating for this payment, so shareholders have no other option than to receive a traditional cash payment.
At today's pricing, CSL shares have a trailing dividend yield of 1.28%. If we factor in the newly announced dividend, CSL would have a forward dividend yield of 1.35%.
