Vinamilk is about to spend 5,120 billion to pay cash dividends, foreign investors are stepping up their purchases

With weak demand and strong selling pressure, the VnIndex officially broke through the 1,200 mark on June 20 with more than 900 stocks falling. The stock market then continued to witness sessions of decline, with many stocks burning brightly for many sessions. Investors' opportunities to make profits from trading activities are becoming increasingly difficult and uncertain.

Therefore, the cash flow in the market has shifted to more stable channels such as investing in sustainable stocks, with low price fluctuations or high dividend payments. That trend has pushed some stocks to increase strongly.

Despite the difficulties of the past 2 years of Covid-19, many businesses have still decided to pay dividends, even high dividends to shareholders. Looking back over the past few days, many businesses have set dividend payment dates such as Ca Mau Fertilizer (DCM), PVGas (GAS)... These businesses all announced the closing date for the shareholder list in the first days of July.

In which, Vinamilk (VNM) - a familiar face in the top high dividend paying enterprises on the stock market - also announced the closing of cash dividend rights, total rate of 24.5%, equivalent to 1 share receiving 2,450 VND.

Accordingly, July 7 is the last registration date to make a list of shareholders to pay the remaining dividend of 2021 (rate of 9.5%) and the first interim dividend of 2022 (rate of 15%).

With 2.1 billion shares outstanding, Vinamilk is expected to pay a total of VND5,120.4 billion in dividends to shareholders. This amount will be paid on August 19.

VNM's dividend payout in recent years

Vinamilk has always been among the top companies paying the highest cash dividends. In recent years, the company has focused its cash resources on investment projects to expand production and business, so the dividend payout ratio has decreased slightly but is still among the top in the market.

Currently, until the record date, Vinamilk shareholders still have about 2 weeks to "buy" VNM shares to receive dividends. This is also the move that makes VNM shares reverse the trend, increasing sharply in recent sessions from 66,700 VND/share (closing price of the trading session on June 17) to 73,700 VND/share (closing price of the trading session on June 21), equivalent to an increase of 10.5% in just 2 sessions. Market liquidity on June 21 also nearly doubled that of June 20, reaching approximately 5 million shares matched in the session. With this market price, Vinamilk's market capitalization reached more than 154,000 billion VND.

VNM stock price fluctuations in correlation with VNIndex in 1 month. (VNM: Blue line, VNIndex: Purple line). Source: TradingView

The attraction of paying dividends in shares for VNM shares is not only for domestic investors, but also for foreign investors who are "collecting" stocks. On June 21, the net buying volume of foreign investors reached 2.07 million units, equivalent to a net trading value of more than VND 152.6 billion. The net buying volume of foreign investors on June 21 was nearly 2.4 times higher than the previous session on June 20.

Signs of foreign investors "collecting" VNM shares have continued to occur in the last 4 sessions, from June 16 to June 21.

Previously, at this year's annual general meeting of shareholders, shareholders approved the 2021 dividend plan, at a rate of 38.5% in cash (VND 3,850/share), equivalent to a total value of VND 8,046 billion. Vinamilk has provisionally paid 29% dividends to shareholders on September 30, 2021 and February 25. In addition, the dividend for 2022 is also 38.5% in cash.