Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) shares are under pressure on Friday.
At the time of writing, the supermarket giant's shares are down a disappointing 9% to $20.21 following the release of its half-year results.
While the market appears disappointed with parts of the results, there is at least one piece of good news for income investors. That is a higher fully franked dividend.
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The Coles dividend
Coles' board declared a fully franked interim dividend of 41 cents per share, up from 37 cents a year ago.
This follows August's fully franked final dividend of 32 cents per share. That means, on a trailing basis, Coles will have paid a total of 73 cents per share over the past 12 months (32 cents final + 41 cents interim).
Based on the current share price of $20.21, that equates to a trailing dividend yield of approximately 3.6%, fully franked.
Key dates investors need to know
The interim dividend has an ex-dividend date of 10 March. To be entitled to the 41 cents per share payout, investors must own Coles shares before that date.
Once shares trade ex-dividend, new buyers are no longer eligible for that upcoming payment.
But for those that are eligible, Coles has named its payment date as 30 March.
In addition, the company revealed that its dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) will operate with no discount for this dividend.
What did Coles report today?
For the 27 weeks ended 4 January 2026, Coles reported a 2.5% lift in sales revenue to $23.6 billion, a 10.2% increase in group EBIT (excluding significant items) to $1.231 billion, and a 12.5% jump in profit after tax (excluding significant items) to $676 million.
Supermarkets delivered EBIT growth of 14.6%, with margins improving to 5.8%.
However, reported net profit after tax fell 11.3% to $511 million due to a $235 million provision relating to the Federal Court judgment in the Fair Work Ombudsman proceedings.
How does this compare to expectations?
According to a note out of Morgans, its analysts were expecting a 3.5% increase in revenue and a 16.5% jump in underlying net profit after tax to $699 million.
As you can see, Coles has fallen short of this, which may explain why its shares are tumbling today.
And with Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) reporting stronger sales growth earlier this week, it seems that Coles could be giving back market share to its key rival.
