The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price has been on a continuous decline since the middle of June. This comes as the spot price of oil faces renewed pressure.
Nonetheless, at Wednesday's market close, Santos shares finished the day up 0.33% to $6.16.
What's going on with the Santos share price?
It seems investors have been relatively pessimistic about the Santos share price recently, considering its 7% drop over the past month.
In its FY21 half-year results released last week, the company reported revenue of US$2.04 billion, up 22% over the prior corresponding period. The robust performance was driven by record production of 47.3 mmboe (million barrels of oil equivalent) and record sales volumes of 53.8 mmboe.
In addition, higher oil prices were realised but were offset by lower LNG (liquified natural gas) prices due to long-term, fixed-price offtake contracts.
This led the company to post a net profit after tax of $354 million. This represented a swing of $643 million compared to a net loss after tax of $289 million achieved in H1 FY20. Santos attributed the turnaround to the lower after-tax impairment loss of $6 million, compared to the $526 million posted in 2020.
However, the Santos share price has been tumbling as the spot price for oil corrected from its recent rally. The WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil price is currently trading at US$67.57 per barrel. This represents a 12% drop from its 52-week high of US$76.98 per barrel reached in July.
Santos dividend yield
Santos paid a fully-franked final dividend of US 5 cents per share to shareholders in March. On top of this, the company rewarded shareholders with an interim dividend payment of US 5.5 cents apiece this earnings season.
When factoring in the current share price, this gives Santos a trailing dividend yield of 2.35%.
Santos commands a market capitalisation of roughly $12.8 billion, with more than 2 billion shares on its books.
