Yahoo Finance Hill & Smith Holdings (LON:HILS) Is Increasing Its Dividend To £0.13
Hill & Smith Holdings PLC (LON:HILS) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend from last year's comparable payment on the 6th of January to £0.13. Despite this raise, the dividend yield of 3.2% is only a modest boost to shareholder returns.
View our latest analysis for Hill & Smith Holdings
Hill & Smith Holdings' Dividend Is Well Covered By Earnings
Even a low dividend yield can be attractive if it is sustained for years on end. Based on the last dividend, Hill & Smith Holdings is earning enough to cover the payment, but then it makes up 112% of cash flows. While the company may be more focused on returning cash to shareholders than growing the business at this time, we think that a cash payout ratio this high might expose the dividend to being cut if the business ran into some challenges.
The next year is set to see EPS grow by 32.2%. If the dividend continues on this path, the payout ratio could be 40% by next year, which we think can be pretty sustainable going forward.
Dividend Volatility
Although the company has a long dividend history, it has been cut at least once in the last 10 years. The dividend has gone from an annual total of £0.132 in 2012 to the most recent total annual payment of £0.32. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 9.3% per annum over that time. It's good to see the dividend growing at a decent rate, but the dividend has been cut at least once in the past. Hill & Smith Holdings might have put its house in order since then, but we remain cautious.
Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve
With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to evaluate if earnings per share is growing, which could point to a growing dividend in the future. Hill & Smith Holdings hasn't seen much change in its earnings per share over the last five years. The company has been growing at a pretty soft 1.0% per annum, and is paying out quite a lot of its earnings to shareholders. This isn't bad in itself, but unless earnings growth pick up we wouldn't expect dividends to grow either.
Our Thoughts On Hill & Smith Holdings' Dividend
Overall, this is probably not a great income stock, even though the dividend is being raised at the moment. While Hill & Smith Holdings is earning enough to cover the payments, the cash flows are lacking. We would probably look elsewhere for an income investment.
Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. For example, we've picked out 2 warning signs for Hill & Smith Holdings that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. Is Hill & Smith Holdings not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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