The New Hope Corp Ltd (ASX: NHC) share price is taking a fall today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) coal stock closed yesterday trading for $5.22. In morning trade on Thursday, shares are swapping hands for $4.90 apiece, down 6.1%.
For some contexts, the ASX 200 is up 0.1% at this time.
Here's what's happening.
Why is the New Hope share price sliding?
After closing up 4.4% yesterday, much of the selling action pressuring the New Hope share price today relates to the ASX 200 mining stock trading ex-dividend.
It's common for a stock's share price to decline on the day it trades ex-dividend.
That's because investors buying shares today will no longer be eligible to receive New Hope's final fully franked dividend of 22 cents a share. That passive income payout will instead go to investors who held the stock at market close yesterday.
If that's you, you can expect to receive your final dividend payout on 24 October, in three weeks.
If you're buying shares today, you won't get that dividend, but you will be buying the stock for 6.1% less than where it closed yesterday.
Buying in at a lower New Hope share price could bode well for your longer-term dividend yield results if you hold the stock through the next round or rounds of dividend payments.
New Hope generally makes two fully franked dividend payments per year.
What's been happening with the ASX 200 coal stock?
In 2023, the New Hope share price and the miner's sought-after dividends dropped along with the record coal price from the all-time highs in 2022. And they slid further in 2024, with coal prices stabilising over the past year in the US$140 per tonne range.
Still, the miner delivered 39 cents a share in fully franked dividends for FY 2024. At the current price, that sees New Hope shares trading on a trailing dividend yield of 8.0%.
And while the miner's FY 2024 results, reported on 17 September, showed a big decline in revenue and profit from the prior year, the company remained profitable.
While revenue was down 34.6% from FY 2023, it still came in at $1.8 billion. And despite the 56.2% decline in net profit after tax, New Hope booked a $475.9 million profit.
It was the same story for underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which were down 50.8% to $859.9 million.
As CEO Rob Bishop pointed out, that was close to a record result:
The combination of a robust thermal coal price environment, disciplined cost control and strong operational performance contributed to the third highest earnings result in the history of our company.
The New Hope share price is down 7.5% in 2024.
