The market may be edging lower on Tuesday, but Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL), Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES), and Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) shares are all performing far worse.
Here's the state of play at the time of writing:
- The Coles share price is down 2% to $18.54.
- The Wesfarmers share price is down 2.5% to $70.59.
- The Woolworths share price is down is down 3.6% to $34.53.
What's going on with Coles, Wesfarmers, and Woolworths shares?
Thankfully for shareholders, today's declines have nothing to do with retail sales data, broker downgrades, or individual updates.
In fact, today's declines could arguably be classed as good news for them. That's because these ASX 200 retail stocks are falling due to trading ex-dividend.
When a share goes ex-dividend, it means the rights to an upcoming dividend payment are settled and new buyers won't be entitled to receive it on pay day.
In light of this, a share price will usually drop in line with the value of the dividend to reflect this. After all, you wouldn't want to pay for something that you won't receive, and a dividend does form part of a company's valuation.
The Coles dividend
Last month, Coles released its full year results and reported a 5.7% increase in revenue to $43.6 billion and a 4.1% lift in underlying net profits after tax to $1.21 billion.
This allowed the Coles board to declare a fully franked final dividend of 32 cents per share for FY 2024.
Eligible shareholders can now look forward to receiving this dividend later this month on 25 September.
The Wesfarmers dividend
Wesfarmers released its results last month and revealed a 1.5% year on year increase in revenue to $44.2 billion and a 3.7% lift in net profit to $2.56 billion.
This allowed the Bunnings and Kmart owner to declare a fully franked final dividend of $1.07 per share. Wesfarmers intends to pay this dividend to eligible shareholders next month on 9 October.
The Woolworths dividend
Finally, Woolworths was extra generous with its shareholders last month when it released its full year results, which explains why its shares are falling more than the others today.
The supermarket giant posted a 3.7% increase in normalised sales to $67.92 billion but a 3% decline in net profit after tax (before significant items) to $1.71 billion.
This saw Woolworths declare a fully franked final dividend of 57 cents per share. This will be paid to eligible shareholders at the very end of the month on 30 September.
But wait, there's more! With the company offloading part of its stake in Endeavour Group (ASX: EDV) during the financial year, the Woolworths board elected to reward shareholders with a fully franked special dividend of 40 cents per share. This will also be paid to eligible shareholders at the end of the month.
