The board of Aiphone Co.,Ltd. (TSE:6718) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 30th of June, with investors receiving ¥80.00 per share. This makes the dividend yield 4.4%, which will augment investor returns quite nicely.
Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained. Prior to this announcement, AiphoneLtd's dividend made up quite a large proportion of earnings but only 62% of free cash flows. This leaves plenty of cash for reinvestment into the business.
Over the next year, EPS is forecast to expand by 14.6%. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could reach 78%, which is on the higher side, but certainly still feasible.
View our latest analysis for AiphoneLtd
The company has been paying a dividend for a long time, and it has been quite stable which gives us confidence in the future dividend potential. The annual payment during the last 10 years was ¥30.00 in 2015, and the most recent fiscal year payment was ¥130.00. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 16% 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.
Investors who have held shares in the company for the past few years will be happy with the dividend income they have received. AiphoneLtd has seen EPS rising for the last five years, at 10% per annum. Recently, the company has been able to grow earnings at a decent rate, but with the payout ratio on the higher end we don't think the dividend has many prospects for growth.
Overall, a consistent dividend is a good thing, and we think that AiphoneLtd has the ability to continue this into the future. The dividend is easily covered by cash flows and has a good track record, but we think the payout ratio might be a bit high. The dividend looks okay, but there have been some issues in the past, so we would be a little bit cautious.
Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. Are management backing themselves to deliver performance? Check their shareholdings in AiphoneLtd in our latest insider ownership analysis. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.