One of the most popular options for income investors on the Australian share market is the Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) dividend.
Australia's oldest bank regularly shares a portion of its profits with investors and more often than not provides an above-average dividend yield.
The good news is that this remains the case today, with Westpac reporting its full year results this morning and increasing its dividend payment year over year.
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Westpac dividend for FY 2022
In case you missed it, this morning Westpac released its FY 2022 results and revealed a 1% decline in cash earnings to $5,276 million. This reflects weakness in the consumer and business segments, which offset growth in New Zealand and the institutional business.
Nevertheless, despite posting a cash earnings decline for the year, that didn't stop the Westpac board from lifting its full year dividend.
According to the release, the Westpac board declared a fully franked final dividend of 64 cents per share. This was up 6.7% from FY 2021's final dividend of 60 cents per share. This took the Westpac dividend for FY 2022 to a total of $1.25 per share fully franked, which was an increase of approximately 6% on last year's payment of $1.18 per share.
All in all, this will mean Westpac returns over $7.8 billion to shareholders via dividends and a share buyback in FY 2022.
Commenting on the dividend, Westpac's chairman, John McFarlane, said:
The Group remains well capitalised. When considering dividends, the Board focuses on cash earnings but also looks through selected irregular large items. This led to the Board determining a final dividend of 64 cents per share and total of 125 cents per share fully franked for the year, an increase of 6%, just ahead of statutory profit growth.
What else do you need to know?
The release notes that the final Westpac dividend will be paid on 20 December to shareholders that are on the register at the record date of 18 November.
In addition, Westpac will be running its dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) again this year. However, there will be no discount to the market price. If you wish to take part in the DRP, you'll need to make sure your DRP election reflects this before the close of play on 21 November.
