Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) shares are $110.52 apiece, up 1.92% amid the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) rising 0.19% on Thursday.

But this is likely not what Rio Tinto investors are focusing on today.

Instead, they're waiting for a nice deposit into their bank accounts, as it's payday!

Rio Tinto to pay out dividends today

The ASX 200 mining giant announced a final dividend for FY24 of US$2.25 per share on 20 February.

A currency conversion took place on 8 April to determine the final dividend in AU dollars.

Australian investors will receive A$3.71317765 per share, based on an exchange rate of 60.595 cents against the greenback.

The dividend will come with full franking credits. 

Rio Tinto shares investors participating in the dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) will have to wait a little longer to receive their benefit.

DRP plans allow shareholders to choose to receive their dividends as additional shares instead of a cash payment.

Each company has a unique process for executing its DRP.

In Rio Tinto's case, the company will purchase DRP shares on-market, either today or as soon as practicable.

This process may involve several transactions, and the average price paid will become the DRP share price for each recipient.

This means the recent share market rout may come in handy for DRP investors.

This is because Rio Tinto shares are trading 9.4% lower than where they were when the full-year FY24 results were announced.

Rio Tinto will report its finalised DRP share price after the stock purchases are completed.

Thinking of buying?

After the mining giant released its 1Q FY25 production results yesterday, Goldman Sachs retained its buy rating on Rio Tinto shares.

The broker reduced its 12-month price target by 1% to $140.80. Still, this implies an appealing potential 27% upside from here.

Goldman likes Rio's "attractive" free cash flow and dividend yield, and the broker says it is bullish on copper and aluminium.

In a new note published yesterday, Goldman said it prefers Rio Tinto over BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) but rates both mining stocks a buy.

The broker said:

Despite both RIO & BHP spending around ~US$10-11bn p.a., we expect RIO to widen the production (Cu Eq) and FCF gap over BHP over the next 5yrs.

Based our 12m price targets, RIO.AX has greater upside (30%) vs BHP.AX (25%) (both Buy-rated).

Rio Tinto shares are down 14% over the past 12 months.

Interested to learn more?

My colleague, Tristan Harrison, outlines what he sees as the pros and cons of buying Rio Tinto this month.

James Mickelboro also outlines 5 reasons to buy Rio Tinto shares right now.