It was an exciting earnings season in particular for shareholders of Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) last month. After four long years, the Flight Centre dividend has finally returned.
As we covered late last month when Flight Centre reported its latest earnings covering the full 2023 financial year, the company had a strong set of books to show off.
Over FY23, the ASX 200 travel share reported a 127% rise in revenues to $2.28 billion, as well as an underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of $302 million. That was up from a loss of $183 million last year.
The company also turned its profits right around, revealing a net profit after tax (NPAT) of $70 million, up from a net loss of $378 million in FY22.
This all enabled Flight Centre to declare a final, and fully franked, dividend of 18 cents per share. This is the first dividend that Flight Centre investors have enjoyed since September 2019.
If you want the latest Flight Centre dividend, here's what you need to do
Exciting times for the company and its investors indeed. However, eligibility for this new Flight Centre dividend will soon close. That's because Flight Centre is scheduled to trade ex-dividend for this payment this week — on Wednesday to be precise.
When a company trades ex-dividend, it rules a line in the sand over who can receive the dividend payment. Anyone owning shares as of the ex-dividend date (20 September in this case) will receive this latest dividend.
But anyone who buys the shares on or after this Wednesday will miss out. So expect a bit of a share price drop on Wednesday when the line is drawn, reflecting this loss in value for new investors.
Eligible shareholders can then look forward to seeing the dividend arrive in their accounts next month on 19 October.
Share price snapshot
Flight Centre shares have had a pretty lacklustre start to the trading week today. At present, this ASX 200 travel stock has lost almost 1% and is down to $19.94 a share. However, the Flight Centre share price remains up by a healthy 29% in 2023 so far:
At the current share price, flight Centre offers a dividend yield of 0.9%.
