Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) shares are $140.03 apiece, up 1.8% on Thursday and up 18.5% in the year to date (YTD).
Rio Tinto is yet to pay its final dividend for FY25 because it reports on a different timetable to the other major ASX 200 iron ore miners.
In September, Rio Tinto paid an FY25 interim dividend of US$1.48 per share, which converted to just under A$2.22.
The miner will announce its final dividend for FY25 in February.
Currently, Rio Tinto shares are trading on a trailing dividend yield of 4.23%.
That's not as high as we're used to with Rio Tinto shares, but it's higher than the average ASX 200 dividend these days.
By comparison, Rio Tinto's key iron ore rivals, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG), have trailing yields of 3.79% and 4.79%, respectively.
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When will Rio Tinto announce its dividends in the new year?
According to Rio Tinto's corporate calendar, the miner will announce its full-year FY25 results and final dividend on 19 February.
Prior to that, we'll get a 4Q FY25 production report on 20 January.
The 1Q FY26 and 2Q FY26 production reports will follow on 21 April and 15 July, respectively.
Rio Tinto will release its 1H FY26 results and interim dividend on 29 July.
The 3Q FY26 production report will be released on 14 October.
What happened to the Rio Tinto share price this year?
The Rio Tinto share price has increased by 18.5% in 2025.
This compares to a 13.3% rise for BHP shares and a superior 22% bump for Fortescue shares.
A steady iron ore price has contributed to these gains.
The iron ore price remains above the important psychological threshold of US$100 per tonne.
On Thursday, the iron ore price is US$106.66 per tonne, up 3% this year.
Should you buy Rio Tinto shares?
The consensus rating among 15 traders on the CommSec trading platform is a moderate buy.
Three have a strong buy rating on Rio Tinto shares, four have a moderate buy, six say hold, and two say it's a moderate sell.
Last week, Rio Tinto promised investors a 'stronger, sharper, and simpler' strategy in the year ahead.
Rio Tinto will streamline its focus to three segments to enhance productivity and create industry-leading returns.
They are Iron Ore; Copper; and Aluminium and Lithium.
In a new note this week, Macquarie retained a neutral rating on Rio Tinto shares with a 12-month price target of $130.
Among the diversified major miners, the broker prefers Rio Tinto over BHP, but prefers South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) overall.
The broker said it expects a weaker iron ore market in the medium term and prefers Rio to BHP for several reasons.
They include Rio Tinto having a relatively better catalyst backdrop, shorter-term growth, and more room to improve.
The broker said Rio's new strategy should generate about US$2 billion of savings per annum.
Macquarie also said:
… RIO is in a harvest phase for its capital program, with Simandou ramping up and OT [Oyu Tolgoi] continuing and blending opportunities with Simandou ore enabling Pilbara production growth.
New growth options are required, but not until the back end of the decade once OT and Simandou ramps up.
Asset sales, whose quantum exceeded our expectations at US$5-10b in aggregate, help improve returns (dividends) as funding growth is de-constrained. We had expected BHP to pull this lever earlier than RIO, which means RIO has jumped in front of the queue.
