There are arguably four days that owners of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares look most forward to in any given financial year.
Two of them are, of course, CBA's earnings reports, when investors find out how much the next CBA dividend will be. The other two are when the said dividends actually get paid out.
Well, today is one of those four days. This Friday, 27 September, is the day that CBA's latest and greatest dividend arrives in shareholders' bank accounts.
Last month, we broke down CBA's latest earnings report, covering the full 2024 financial year. As we went through at the time, these earnings were well-received by investors.
That was despite CBA reporting that its operating income over the 12 months to 30 June 2024 was flat at $27.17 billion. Operating expenses were up 3%, which resulted in CBA reporting a cash net profit after tax of $9.84 billion, a 2% fall on the previous year's figures.
CBA's net interest margin also fell over the year, down 8 basis points to 1.99%.
Even so, CBA was able to reveal a final dividend of $2.50 per share for FY2024, naturally replete with full franking credits.
Own CBA shares? The monster dividend is arriving today
This dividend was a notable one for a few reasons. Primarily, it represents a 4.17% improvement over the final dividend of $2.40 per share that investors received in 2023.
Additionally, this payment is a 16.28% hike over the interim payment of $2.15 per share that investors bagged back in March. It is also the largest single dividend CBA shares have ever paid out in their long history as an ASX bank stock.
It took CBA's full-year dividend for FY2024 (and 2024) to $4.65 per share, again up from 2023's total of $4.50.
As we warned later last month, CBA scheduled 21 August as the ex-dividend date for this latest dividend. So anyone who didn't already own CBA shares as of the market close on 20 August isn't eligible to receive this supersized shareholder payment.
But for those investors who did qualify, today is your lucky day.
Friday, 27 September is the day that CBA set for payment of this dividend. So if you're an eligible CBA shareholder, you should be seeing some cash arrive in your bank or brokerage account sometime this Friday, if it hasn't already.
Alternatively, you may see some new CBA shares to your name if you chose to utilise CBA's optional dividend reinvestment plan (DRP).
At the current CBA share price, this ASX 200 bank is trading on a dividend yield of 3.48%.
