Australia’s Fortescue (ASX: FMG) reported a rise in annual profit on Thursday, supported by higher iron ore shipments and stronger realised prices.

The company declared a final dividend of 46 Australian cents per share, down from 60 cents per share a year earlier. The final dividend, the miner’s lowest since fiscal 2018, represents a payout ratio of 65% of fiscal 2026 underlying net profit after tax.

Record annual shipments of 201.3 million metric tons and higher iron ore prices helped Fortescue meet market estimates for its annual earnings, despite higher Hematite C1 unit costs, largely due to elevated diesel prices.

The world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner reported a 2.8% rise in underlying net profit attributable to $3.47 billion for the year ended June 30, largely inline with the Visible Alpha estimate of $3.52 billion and higher than $3.37 billion reported a year ago.

The miner sold its iron ore for about $90.7 per dry metric ton (dmt), compared with $84.8 per dmt a year earlier.

(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri and Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)