The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is missing out on the market rebound on Thursday.
At the time of writing, the mining giant's shares are down 2% to $54.55.
This compares unfavourably to a gain of 0.8% by the S&P/ASX 200 Index, which is recovering today after Wednesday's broad market selloff.
So why are BHP shares moving lower while the wider market is pushing higher?
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Why is the BHP share price underperforming?
Today's decline has nothing to do with iron ore prices, copper demand, or a broker downgrade.
Instead, it appears to be the result of the Big Australian's shares going ex-dividend today for its latest interim dividend.
When a company's shares trade ex-dividend, it means the rights to the upcoming dividend have been settled.
As a result, investors who purchase the shares from today onwards will not be eligible to receive the payment. Instead, the dividend will be paid to the seller of the shares, even though they will no longer own them when the payment is made.
Because dividends form part of a company's valuation, a share price will often fall by roughly the value of the dividend on the ex-dividend date.
After all, investors generally do not want to pay for something they will not receive.
The latest BHP dividend
Last month, BHP released its half-year results for FY 2026 and declared a fully franked interim dividend of 73 US cents per share.
This represents a very sizeable cash return of US$3.7 billion for shareholders and continues the mining giant's long-standing approach of distributing a large portion of its profits through dividends.
Based on the BHP share price at yesterday's close of $55.68 and current exchange rates, the interim dividend represents a dividend yield of roughly 1.85%.
That means a $20,000 investment in BHP shares would generate around $370 of income from this interim dividend alone.
When is the dividend being paid?
If you were holding BHP shares before the ex-dividend date, you will not have long to wait for the payment.
The mining giant plans to pay this interim dividend to eligible shareholders later this month on 26 March.
What's next?
According to a note out of Morgans, its analysts expect a similar dividend in the second half.
This is expected to underpin a full-year dividend of approximately A$2.16 per share in FY 2026. It then expects a A$1.98 per share dividend in FY 2027.
Based on its current share price, this represents dividend yields of 4% and 3.6%, respectively.
