The New Hope Corporation Ltd (ASX: NHC) share price is sinking deep into the red on Monday.

In morning trade, the coal miner's shares are down 6% to $3.86.

Why is the New Hope share price sinking?

The good news for shareholders is that today's decline isn't due to a collapse in coal prices or a production guidance downgrade.

In fact, today's decline is arguably a positive for shareholders. That's because it has been caused by the company's shares going ex-dividend this morning. This means that pay day is approaching!

When a share goes ex-dividend, it means the rights to an upcoming dividend are now settled. As a result, any investors that are buying shares today, will not be entitled to receive the payout when pay day comes around.

In light of this, a share price will tend to drop to reflect this. After all, a dividend forms part of a company's valuation and you don't want to pay for something you won't receive.

The New Hope dividend

The New Hope share price charged higher last week after it released its half year results.

New Hope reported a 32.9% increase in coal production to 5.4Mt, which reflects the ongoing execution of its organic growth strategy. This helped lift the miner's underlying EBITDA to $517.3 million, which was an increase of almost 22% from $424.8 million a year ago.

On the bottom line, New Hope's net profit after tax jumped 35% to $340.3 million.

In light of its strong first half performance and healthy balance sheet, New Hope rewarded its shareholders with a fully franked interim dividend of 19 cents per share. This is up 11.8% from 17 cents per share a year ago.

Based on where the New Hope share price ended last week, this equates to an attractive 4.6% dividend yield. And there's still a final dividend to come later this year!

When is pay day?

Eligible shareholders can now look forward to receiving this payout next month on 9 April.

After which, analysts at Goldman Sachs are expecting the company to declare a 19 cents per share fully franked final dividend in September. This will bring its total dividends to 36 cents per share for FY 2025, which represents an 8.8% dividend yield based on its last close price.

At present, Goldman has a sell rating and $4.30 price target on the company's shares. Though, this is now comfortably ahead of where the New Hope share price is now trading. So, it is possible this recommendation could change in time.