Owners of BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares can rejoice because the latest dividend payment was just announced in its FY26 half-year result and it was a big increase of the passive income payout.
As a commodity business, BHP's profit is significantly influenced by what happens with resource prices. A higher resource price can largely add straight onto the bottom line because it's getting much more revenue for the same level of production.
BHP revealed that its sold copper price rose 32%, helping the copper underlying operating profit (EBITDA) soar 59% to US$8 billion. Copper made up just over half of the company's earnings.
Overall revenue grew 11% to US$27.9 billion, underlying EBITDA rose 25% to US$15.5 billion and attributable profit jumped 28% to US$5.6 billion.
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BHP dividend announced
BHP's board of directors decided to declare a fully franked dividend of US 73 cents per share. That represented a year-over-year increase of close to 50%.
The ASX mining share said that this represented a dividend payout ratio of 60% of profit.
BHP said this extends its track record of strong returns while balancing investment in growth. It noted that after this dividend is paid, it will have paid more than US$110 billion to shareholders since the introduction of the capital allocation framework in 2016.
Important dates
The ex-dividend date tells investors the cut-off date to be entitled to the upcoming dividend. Investors need to own BHP shares before this date to ensure they receive the dividend.
BHP said that the ex-dividend date for ASX investors is 5 March 2026, which is just over two weeks away. That means investors need to own BHP shares before the end of trading on 4 March 2026 to be entitled to the interim dividend.
The BHP dividend will be paid on 26 March 2026, with the dividend re-investment plan (DRP) allocation date being 13 April 2026. Investors who want to take part in the DRP need to do so before 5pm on 9 March 2026.
How could the BHP dividend payments progress?
The ASX mining share's shorter-term success will be heavily influenced by what happens with resource prices.
BHP revealed what it's seeing and expecting with demand, which will be important for the resource prices:
CY26 copper demand is expected to remain strong off its current high base. Seaborne iron ore demand is expected to stabilise at a high level in CY26, while seaborne metallurgical coal demand could recover modestly driven by India and developing economies.
Indian commodity demand continues to grow strongly, driven by broad-based sectoral growth and underpinned by the ongoing capacity additions in the steel and metals value chain (e.g. blast furnaces in steel, smelting and refining in copper).
Over the long term, population growth, urbanisation, rising living standards, and the infrastructure required for digitisation and decarbonisation are all expected to drive demand for steel and copper. Growing global population and rising incomes will shift dietary patterns and the need to improve soil productivity, underpinning long-term potash demand.
In other words, the outlook seems positive for ongoing good profitability and BHP's dividend payouts.
