The Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) share price is up more than 2% after the company delivered its FY25 half-year result, which included another increase to the dividend.
Despite the challenging economic conditions during this period, which included a high cost of living and elevated interest rates, the owners of Bunnings and Kmart managed to deliver more revenue and profit growth.
Investors were pleased to see the numbers the company reported, following a rise of around 25% of the Wesfarmers share price in the past 12 months.
Let's examine some of the most important numbers from the result and then consider the appealing dividend payout for Wesfarmers shareowners.
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Earnings recap
Wesfarmers reported that in the half-year ended 31 December 2024, its revenue increased 3.6% to $23.5 billion, while net profit rose 2.9% to $1.5 billion.
The two most important divisions for revenue and profit generation are Bunnings Group and Kmart Group, so we'll focus there.
Wesfarmers said its largest divisions performed well, thanks to everyday low prices, market-leading offers, and strong execution, which drove growth in transactions, sales, and earnings.
Bunnings delivered revenue growth of 3.1% to $10.3 billion, with comparable sales growth of 3.4%. Earnings increased 3.1% to $1.3 billion, with the Bunnings return on capital (ROC) improving by 5.7 percentage points to 71.5%.
Wesfarmers explained that there was strong consumer sales growth and continued growth in commercial sales while improved productivity supported investments in price and experience.
Kmart Group's sales rose 2% to $6.2 billion, with comparable sales growth of 1.9%. Wesfarmers said that Kmart Group benefited from productivity initiatives, including the digitalisation of operations and integration of Kmart and Target's systems and processes, which helped mitigate cost pressures and volatility in foreign exchange rates. Kmart Group's ROC improved 7.1 percentage points to an impressive 65.9%.
In the first six weeks of the second half of FY25, Bunnings and Officeworks "maintained solid sales momentum, with sales growth broadly in line with the first half" of FY25. Kmart Group's sales growth was "stronger" at the start of the second half compared to the first half of FY25, supported by its Anko products.
Wesfarmers dividend
The Wesfarmers interim dividend was hiked by 4.4% to 95 cents per Wesfarmers share following the 2.9% rise of earnings per share (EPS) to $1.29 per share. This represents a dividend payout ratio of 73.6% of its generated profit.
Wesfarmers' interim dividend has an ex-dividend date of 25 February, which is next Tuesday. That means investors need to own Wesfarmers shares by the end of trading on Monday, 24 February, if they want to receive this upcoming dividend.
The payment date for the upcoming dividend is 1 April 2025.
If investors want to take part in the dividend reinvestment plan (DRP), they need to make that election by 8pm on 27 February, according to Wesfarmers.
Wesfarmers shares snapshot
The retail company's share price has risen by over 10% since the beginning of 2025.
