This Wednesday is shaping up to be a great day to own ASX shares. At the time of writing, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has gained 0.053% and is trading at 8,181.20 points. But it's an even better day to own Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) shares.
Sure, the Wesfarmers share price is currently up a euphoric 1.09% to $69.71 at present. That's despite no obvious catalyst for this market-crushing gain so far today.
But that's not the only piece of good news that Wesfarmers owners have in store this hump day. It also happens to be dividend payday for shareholders.
Back in August, we covered Wesfarmers' latest earnings report, which also revealed the company's latest dividend payment.
As we went through at the time, these earnings were pretty pleasant for investors to peruse.
The Bunnings, OfficeWorks and Target-owner reported a 1.5% rise in revenues to $44.2 billion. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were up 3.3% to $3.9 billion, while Wesfarmers' net profits lifted 3.7% to $2.56 billion. The company's earnings per share (EPS) also got a 3.6% bump up to 225.7 cents per share.
This enabled Wesfarmers to reveal a final, fully franked dividend of $1.07 per share for 2024.
Wesfarmers' final dividend incoming
This was a pleasing dividend announcement. For one, this payment represents a 3.88% increase over the final dividend of $1.04 per share that investors received this time last year. When paired with the 91 cents per share interim dividend from March, it also brings Wesfarmers' total dividends for 2024 to $1.98 per share.
This annual total of $1.98 per share in 2024 is a 5.32% increase over the $1.88 per share in dividends that shareholders bagged over 2023.
As we touched on back in August, this latest dividend is also the largest payment Wesfarmers has made to shareholders since the 2018 spin-off of Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL).
Wesfarmers nominated 3 September last month as this latest payment's ex-dividend date. To be eligible to receive said dividend, you needed to own Wesfarmers stock as of the market close on 2 September.
But for eligible investors who did make that cut, your long wait is over today.
Yep, sometime today, Wesfarmers investors will receive this $1.07 per share payment. That will either be in cash or in the form of additional Wesfarmers shares if the optional dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) was selected.
At the current Wesfarmers share price, this ASX 200 stock has a dividend yield of 2.84%.
