Yahoo Finance Record (LON:REC) Is Increasing Its Dividend To £0.0313
The board of Record plc (LON:REC) has announced that the dividend on 9th of August will be increased to £0.0313, which will be 15% higher than last year's payment of £0.0272 which covered the same period. This will take the annual payment to 5.1% of the stock price, which is above what most companies in the industry pay.
Check out our latest analysis for Record
Record's Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions
If the payments aren't sustainable, a high yield for a few years won't matter that much. Prior to this announcement, Record was quite comfortably covering its dividend with earnings and it was paying more than 75% of its free cash flow to shareholders. The business is earning enough to make the dividend feasible, but the cash payout ratio of 87% indicates it is more focused on returning cash to shareholders than growing the business.
Over the next year, EPS could expand by 14.4% if the company continues along the path it has been on recently. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, our estimates say the payout ratio could reach 83%, which is definitely on the higher side, but we wouldn't necessarily say this is unsustainable.
Record Has A Solid Track Record
The company has an extended history of paying stable dividends. Since 2013, the annual payment back then was £0.015, compared to the most recent full-year payment of £0.0502. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 13% over that duration. We can see that payments have shown some very nice upward momentum without faltering, which provides some reassurance that future payments will also be reliable.
The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow
Investors who have held shares in the company for the past few years will be happy with the dividend income they have received. We are encouraged to see that Record has grown earnings per share at 14% per year over the past five years. Since earnings per share is growing at an acceptable rate, and the payout policy is balanced, we think the company is positioning itself well to grow earnings and dividends in the future.
In Summary
Overall, this is a reasonable dividend, and it being raised is an added bonus. The payments look okay by most measures, the lack of cash flow could definitely cause problems for them in the future. Taking all of this into consideration, the dividend looks viable moving forward, but investors should be mindful that the company has pushed the boundaries of sustainability in the past and may do so again.
Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. Are management backing themselves to deliver performance? Check their shareholdings in Record in our latest insider ownership analysis. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.
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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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