This week South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) released its FY19 half-year results, and the share price rose 4%.
South32 is a mining and metals company that was spun out of BHP in 2015. It has operations listed in Australia, Africa North America and South America. South32 has shares listed on the ASX and also secondary listings on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.
Special Dividend
South32 has announced a fully franked interim dividend of 5.1 cents per share and a special dividend, also fully franked, of 1.7 cents per share.
What is a special dividend? A special dividend may be distributed to shareholders by the company if it has a large amount of excess cash (click here to learn more about dividends).
This special dividend from South32 is part of its capital management program, which commenced in 2017, to return capital to shareholders. South32 claims to have returned US$2.4 billion to shareholders through share buybacks and special dividends.
The ordinary interim dividend of 5.1 cents is an increase of 19% when compared to the dividend paid in the first half of FY18.
Management Comments and Report
Graham Kerr, South32 CEO, said: “Record production at Australia Manganese, strong operating performance more broadly and higher commodity prices delivered a 17 per cent increase in Profit after tax for the half year, while underlying earnings per share grew by 20 per cent as we continued to benefit from our on-market share buy-back program.”
The strong increase in profit after tax and earnings per share is a positive sign for South32. However, a drop in commodity prices will restrict this type of growth in the future. The net cash balance of the company also decreased by US$1.4B to US$678M as the company funded two mining projects and returned capital to shareholders.
Is South32 A Buy For Dividends?
If you are looking to buy South32 to capitalise on its capital management program, you may have missed the boat. The company has said they will return the remaining US$127M to its shareholders by April 2019 as per the schedule. At the same time, if you are looking for income, the company has provided a consistent dividend payment since listing on the ASX.
If it is dividend payments you are searching for in a mining company, BHP also provides a superb dividend track record. The article ‘Is BHP Group Ltd’s Dividend About To Get Even Bigger?’ by Owen Raskiewicz outlines the forecasted growth of BHP’s dividend over the next few years.
[ls_content_block id=”14948″ para=”paragraphs”]
