MELBOURNE, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Australia's Whitehaven Coal Ltd (WHC.AX) posted a more than five-fold jump in first-half profit on Thursday, aided by soaring coal prices, but paid a lower than expected dividend, sending its shares down. But Whitehaven announced an interim dividend of only 32 Australian cents per share, about 30% lower than Citi estimates and about 16 cents below Goldman Sachs' forecast. Whitehaven shares slid as much as 12.3% after news of the coal reservation scheme broke, before paring loses to A$7.88, down 3.8%. "We do think the structural underpinnings of the market are very positive, but in the short term, coal prices have come off quite a bit," Flynn added. Subsequently, the company kept its run-of-mine coal production guidance of between 19.0 million and 20.4 million tonnes for the 2023 fiscal year unchanged.

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