It's been an encouraging start to this Thursday's trading for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has advanced a confident 0.26% and is back over 9,070 points. Things aren't so rosy for Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) shares, though.
Fortescue is having a day to forget. At the time of writing, the big mining stock has retreated by 0.47% to $17.98 a share. That's after closing at $18.06 yesterday.
It seems investors were not impressed by the miner's latest earnings, which became public this morning before market open.
As we covered earlier today, there were still a few decent numbers in that report. For the 12 months to 30 June 202, Fortescue reported revenue growth of 9% to US$17 billion. Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 9% to US$8.6 billion, while underlying net profits after tax (NPAT) were up 3% to US$3.5 billion.
But let's talk about the latest Fortescue dividend. After all, many ASX investors own this miner purely for its dividend prowess, which has been formidable in the past.
Image source: Getty Images
What does the new Fortescue dividend look like?
So, this morning, Fortescue announced that its final dividend for 2026 would come in at 46 cents per share. As is almost always the case with this miner's payouts, this payment will come with full franking credits attached. This latest final dividend represents a significant reduction (23.3% to be precise) from the 60 cents per share final dividend that investors enjoyed last year.
It means Fortescue will dole out a total of $1.02 per share in fully franked dividends in 2026, a 2-cent drop over the $1.04 that shareholders bagged over 2025. That was assisted mightily by the fact that the company's interim dividend from March (worth 62 cents per share) was a hefty hike over 2025's interim payout of 50 cents.
Fortescue has nominated 1 September as this latest payout's ex-dividend date. So investors have until the close of trading on 31 August to secure Fortescue shares if they wish to receive this payout.
Payday will then roll around on 29 September next month. Fortescue is running its dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) too. So if eligible shareholders wish to receive additional Fortescue shares in lieu of the traditional cash payment, they have until 3 September to opt in to the DRP.
Right now, Fortescue shares are trading on a trailing dividend yield of 6.79%. However, now that we know what Fortescue's next payout will look like, we can assign a lower forward yield of 5.67% to its shares.
