The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is having a morning to forget on Wednesday. That’s after the company released its full-year results after market close yesterday and also confirmed the merger of its oil and gas assets with Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL). As part of the results announcement, BHP declared a full-year dividend of US $3.01 per share, fully franked.
At the time of writing, shares in the mining behemoth are trading for $48.44 – down 5.63%. For comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is practically flat.
Let’s take a closer look at BHP’s dividend news.
BHP dividend boost
For financial year 20/21, BHP declared a net profit of US $17.1 billion. That’s an 88% leap on the prior corresponding period (pcp). Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped a nice 69% to US $37.4 billion. Net operating cash flow increased 73% to US $27.2 billion.
As a result, the company announced a final dividend of US $2.00 per share, fully franked. Added to the interim dividend paid of US $1.01 per share, that equates to a full-year dividend of US $3.01 per share ($4.15 AUD). At the current BHP share price, this equates to a dividend yield of 8.57%.
In FY20, BHP paid a full-year dividend of $1.75 AUD, fully franked – a 4.4% yield at the time.
Today’s dividend announcement is a record for BHP shareholders and the yield is much greater than usual.
BHP share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, the BHP share price has increased by 21.9%. It is slightly underperforming the ASX 200 by 0.8 percentage points. This excludes any dividend payments. Year to date, the company’s shares have climbed by almost 13%
At the current share price, BHP Group has a market capitalisation of around $151 billion.
