It looks like this Tuesday is set to be a rough one for ASX shares as a whole. At the time of writing, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has slipped by 0.32%, dragging the index down to back under 8,120 points. But AGL Energy Ltd (ASX: AGL) shares are doing far better.
The ASX energy generator and retailer is bucking the market today. AGL shares closed at $11.91 each yesterday, but today, they are up a rosy 0.5% at $11.97 each.
That's an outperformance of over 0.8%. Yet, this isn't the only good piece of news for owners of AGL shares this Tuesday. It's also a dividend payday for shareholders.
Last month, we covered AGL's full-year earnings for the 2024 financial year. As we delved into at the time, these earnings were well-received by investors, with AGL revealing a statutory profit of $711 million. That was a significant improvement over the loss of $1.3 billion the company notched for FY2023.
The company also posted an underlying net profit after tax of $812 million, another healthy rise of 189% over the previous year's figures.
This all enabled AGL to declare a final dividend of 35 cents per share for investors.
Own AGL shares? There's a dividend coming your way
Now, this dividend would no doubt have been welcomed by investors. It represents a healthy 52.17% increase over last year's final dividend of 23 cents per share. It's also a 34.6% bump from the interim dividend investors received from their AGL shares back in March. AGL's annual payout now stands at 61 cents per share.
That's not bad, considering this dividend payment represents a dividend payout ratio of 50% of AGL's underlying net profits, right at the bottom end of the company's 50-70% profit payout policy.
Like all of AGL's recent dividends, this latest final payout will come completely unfranked.
As we warned later last month though, the ex-dividend date for this payout came and went on Tuesday, 27 August. This means that anyone who didn't own AGL shares as of the market close on 26 August is ineligible to receive the payment.
For those lucky investors who did qualify, today's your payday.
Yes, if you qualify, expect to see 35 cents for every AGL share owned arrive in your bank account sometime today (if it hasn't already).
At the current AGL share price, this ASX 200 stock is trading on a dividend yield of 5.1%.
