The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is currently down by 7%, which is having a big impact on the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). The ASX 200 is down 2%.
Even without BHP being down so hard, the ASX 200 would still be in the red with plenty of other ASX blue chips also down. For example, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price is down 1.2%, the Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price is down 2%, the Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) share price is down 1.5% and the National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) share price is down 1.4%.
Keep in mind that the ASX usually follows what happened overnight in international markets.
In the US, the S&P 500 Index (INDEXSP: .INX) dropped by 0.74% and the NASDAQ 100 (INDEXNASDAQ: NDX) fell 0.57%.
What’s going on with the BHP share price?
While some of the decline may be due to general market volatility, I think the key reason is that BHP shares have gone ex-dividend. Most readers would know about dividends – when businesses pay out some of the profit to shareholders – but the ex-dividend date is very important too.
Shareholders that own shares before the ex-dividend date and record date are entitled to receive the declared dividend. Investors that buy on or after the ex-dividend date are not entitled to the dividend. Therefore, investors buying BHP shares today won’t receive the large upcoming dividend, so the short-term value of BHP shares are worth less than they were yesterday.
As a reminder, in BHP’s FY22 result it decided to declare a final dividend of US$1.75 per share, which investors now aren’t entitled to. That brought the full year ordinary dividend per share to US$3.25 per share (an increase of 8% compared to FY21).
In FY22, BHP’s continuing operations grew profit by 34% to $34.1 billion and net operating cashflow went up 13% to US$29.3 billion. The continuing operations underlying earnings per share (EPS) rose 25% to US$4.21.
Time to buy?
While an ex-dividend date alone isn’t a reason to buy a business, I do think that BHP could be close to the buy zone because of how commodity prices have dropped off in recent months. For a cyclical business like BHP, I think it’s important to buy when sentiment about the commodity (like iron ore) and the share price is lower.
