BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares are having a poor session on Tuesday.
In morning trade, the mining giant's shares are down 2% to $42.65.
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Why are BHP shares under pressure?
Investors have been selling down the Big Australian's shares today in response to its FY 2023 results release.
That release reveals that BHP posted a 17% decline in revenue to US$53.8 billion and an even larger 31% decline in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) down 31% to US$28 billion.
While disappointing on paper, this result was roughly in line with the market's expectations.
For example, the consensus estimate was for revenue of US$54,363 million and EBITDA of US$28,072 million. So, just a small miss on both metrics if you wanted to be picky.
It was the same story for its dividend. BHP declared a fully franked final dividend of 80 US cents per share, bringing its FY 2023 dividend to US$1.70 per share. This is down 48% year on year and a touch short of the consensus estimate of US$1.72 per share.
Another factor that could be weighing on BHP shares today was its commentary regarding inflation. Management advised that it experienced an effective inflation rate of 10% in FY 2023. Unfortunately, the lagged impact of inflation is expected to continue into FY 2024, particularly for labour costs.
This could squeeze its profits and dividends again over the next 12 months.
Overall, the market doesn't appear to have seen much to get excited about and BHP shares are falling because of this.
