The Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) share price is on fire today. Coles shares closed at $15.88 each yesterday, but opened at $16.50 this morning before rising up to $16.92 at the time of writing. That's a gain worth a significant 6.52%.
This follows the release of Coles' latest half-year earnings results, covering the six months to 31 December.
As we dove into this morning, Coles had some mixed numbers to show off. Sales revenue increased by 3.7% up to $22.22 billion, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ticked up 4.1% to $1.9 billion.
However, reported EBITDA dropped 2.8% to $1.85 billion, while the company's profit after tax fell 8.4% to $589 million.
This led to the grocer declaring an interim dividend of 36 cents per share, fully franked, for the period. This represents a dividend payout ratio of 81.45%.
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Everything you need to know about the latest Coles dividend
This is the first time since its 2018 listing that Coles has failed to increase a dividend for two payments running.
This dividend is the same payout that investors bagged for Coles' interim payout last year. Together with the company's September final dividend of 30 cents per share (also fully franked), it keeps Coles' annual payouts at 66 cents per share.
Investors who don't yet own Coles shares, but might wish to receive this upcoming dividend, have until 5 March next month to get their name onto the record books. That's when the shares are scheduled to trade ex-dividend for this latest payment. Anyone who buys Coles shares on or after 5 March will miss out.
Payment day for eligible shareholders will then come around on 27 March later next month.
Coles is running its dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) for this latest dividend (albeit with no share price discount). So if any shareholders wish to receive additional Coles shares in lieu of the normal cash payment, they have until 7 March to enrol in the DRP.
At the current Coles share price, this ASX 200 supermarket giant has both a trailing and forward dividend yield of 3.89%.
