In This Article:
Chemring Group PLC's (LON:CHG) dividend will be increasing from last year's payment of the same period to £0.038 on 14th of April. Despite this raise, the dividend yield of 2.0% is only a modest boost to shareholder returns.
Check out our latest analysis for Chemring Group
Chemring Group's Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions
It would be nice for the yield to be higher, but we should also check if higher levels of dividend payment would be sustainable. However, Chemring Group's earnings easily cover the dividend. As a result, a large proportion of what it earned was being reinvested back into the business.
The next year is set to see EPS grow by 17.8%. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 34%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.
Dividend Volatility
While the company has been paying a dividend for a long time, it has cut the dividend at least once in the last 10 years. The annual payment during the last 10 years was £0.148 in 2013, and the most recent fiscal year payment was £0.057. The dividend has shrunk at around 9.1% a year during that period. Generally, we don't like to see a dividend that has been declining over time as this can degrade shareholders' returns and indicate that the company may be running into problems.
The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow
Given that the track record hasn't been stellar, we really want to see earnings per share growing over time. Chemring Group has seen EPS rising for the last five years, at 55% per annum. Earnings per share is growing at a solid clip, and the payout ratio is low which we think is an ideal combination in a dividend stock as the company can quite easily raise the dividend in the future.
We Really Like Chemring Group's Dividend
Overall, a dividend increase is always good, and we think that Chemring Group is a strong income stock thanks to its track record and growing earnings. Distributions are quite easily covered by earnings, which are also being converted to cash flows. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.
Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 2 warning signs for Chemring Group that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Is Chemring Group not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.