It's a big day for some ASX dividend investors this Monday. The dividend from one of the ASX's most popular shares – ASX 200 blue chip and supermarket operator Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) – is on its way.
Last month, we covered Woolworths' latest earnings report, which gave investors the numbers on the company's performance over the 2024 financial year.
As we analysed at the time, these results were a bit of a mixed bag for shareholders to process.
Woolies reported that its normalised sales for the financial year rose 3.7% to $67.92 billion. That helped normalised earnings before interest and tax increase by 3.4% to $3.22 billion. However, the company's net profits after tax (before significant items) fell 3% for the year down to $1.71 billion.
That was probably a factor in the announcement that Woolworths' final dividend for FY2024 would be a fully franked 57 cents per share.
As we went through at the time, this final dividend represents a 1.7% drop from the 58 cents per share investors received this time last year. When combined with Woolies' interim dividend from April of 47 cents per share, it brings the company's 2024 income total to $1.04 in fully-franked dividends per share, exactly the same level of cash that investors received over 2023.
However, that's not where the story ends.
The special Woolworths dividend is inbound
In addition to the final dividend of 57 cents per share, investors also learnt last month that they are in line to receive an additional, special dividend. That special dividend is worth an additional 40 cents per share, fully franked as well.
This special dividend was made possible by Woolworths' sale of a 5% ($489 million) stake in Endeavour Group Ltd (ASX: EDV), the bottle shop company it spun out back in 2021.
So all up, Woolworths shareholders are in line for 97 cents per share in dividends today.
Woolworths picked 3 September as the ex-dividend date for both of these payments. So if you didn't own Woolworths shares as of the market close on 2 September, you won't be eligible to receive these dividends.
Investors also had the option of employing Woolworths' dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) for both payments if they wished to receive additional Woolworths shares instead of a cash payment.
As we touched on earlier, for eligible investors, the dividend pay day for both payments happens to be today, 30 September. So if you owned Woolworths shares by the ex-dividend date, expect to see some cash (or new shares) arrive in your bank or brokerage account this Monday.
The Woolworths share price is currently down 0.33% at the time of writing to $33.32 a share. At this pricing, this ASX 200 blue-chip stock is trading on a dividend yield of 3.12%.
