At the end of last month, we covered the latest earnings (and dividend) from South32 Ltd (ASX: S32).
This ASX 200 mining stock seemed to impress investors with these earnings, with the South32 share price rising at the time. As it stands today, the miner remains a good 4.5% or so above where it was just before these earnings were released. That's at the current South32 share price of $3.22.
This is despite this report containing some sobering numbers for the 2024 financial year.
As we went through back then, South32 revealed that its revenues from continuing operations fell 3% year-on-year to US$5.5 billion.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at US$1.8 billion. That was an even larger 29% drop from the previous year. This resulted in South32 reporting a net loss of US$205 million for FY2024, down 18% from FY2023.
That led South32 to declare a final dividend of 3.1 US cents per share. That's a 3.13% decline from the 3.2 US cents the company doled out this time last year. As is typical with South32 though, this latest dividend will come with full franking credits attached.
Together with the interim dividend of 0.4 US cents per share that we saw paid out in April, South32's full-year dividends for 2024 now stand at 3.5 US cents (5.2 cents at current exchange rates) per share. That represents a 56.8% collapse from the 8.1 US cents (12 cents) per share that investors enjoyed over 2023.
Even so, South32 investors still have a dividend coming their way. Well, that's if they own the shares as of tomorrow's market close.
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South32 shares scheduled to trade ex-dividend in two days
Yes, South32 has set this Thursday, 19 September, as the ex-dividend date for its final dividend of 2024. That means that only those shareholders who own Sotuh32 stock as of the market close tomorrow, 18 September, will be eligible to receive this dividend.
If any investor buys South32 shares on or after Thursday's session, they will leave the rights to this dividend behind with the seller. So expect to see a share price drop when the shares open for trading on Thursday, reflecting this loss of value for new investors.
For eligible shareholders who get on the record for this dividend, payday has been set for 17 October next month.
There is no dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) in operation at South32. As such, shareholders have no choice but to receive this dividend as the traditional cash payment. The final amount in Australian dollars will be determined next week on 26 September.
At the current South32 share price, this ASX 200 mining stock is trading on a dividend yield of 1.61%.
