Today, earnings season ticked another big ASX 200 blue chip share off the list with the full-year results of industrial and retail conglomerate Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES). Not to mention the unveiling of Wesfarmers' latest dividend.
Investors don't seem too impressed with what the owner of Kmart, OfficeWorks and Bunnings reported this morning, with the Wesfarmers share price down a chunky 4.30% to $73.88 at the time of writing. That compares to a 0.61% drop for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
Luckily for Wesfarmers investors, this company's shares remain up more than 37% over the past 12 months.
As we covered in depth this morning, Wesfarmers revealed that its revenues for FY2024 rose by 1.5% year on year to $44.2 billion. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were also up 3.3% to $3.9 billion, which helped the company's net profits rise 3.7% to $2.56 billion.
On an earnings per share (EPS) basis, Wesfarmers banked a 3.6% increase up to $2.257 per share.
But let's talk about what this company had in store for income investors today.
Everything you need to know about the latest Wesfarmers dividend
Wesfarmers revealed a final dividend today of $1.07 per share, fully franked. That represents a 3.88% rise over the final dividend of $1.04 that investors received this time last year. Paired with March's 91 cents per share interim dividend, this latest payout will take Wesfarmers' annual total for 2024 to $1.98 per share.
That's a 5.32% rise over the $1.88 total that was doled out over 2023 and represents a dividend payout ratio of 87.73%.
This latest final dividend is Wesfarmers's largest shareholder payment since the 2018 spinoff of Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL).
If any investors who don't already own Wesfarmers shares wish to secure this dividend, there's no time for lollygagging though.
The company has nominated next Tuesday, 3 September, as the ex-dividend date for this payout. This means that investors who don't have Wesfarmers shares against their name by Monday, 2 September, will forfeit their rights to this payout.
For those eligible investors, dividend payday will come around on 9 October the following month.
If investors wish to receive additional Wesfarmers shares instead of a cash payment, they can opt to participate in the company's dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) by next Thursday, 5 September.
At the current Wesfarmers share price, this AX 200 blue chip stock has a trailing dividend yield of 2.63%, but a forward dividend yield of 2.69% if we swap in the value of the payout that was announced today.
