The board of Sinoseal Holding Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300470) has announced that it will pay a dividend of CN¥0.50 per share on the 18th of October. Based on this payment, the dividend yield on the company's stock will be 2.7%, which is an attractive boost to shareholder returns.
View our latest analysis for Sinoseal Holding
Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained. The last dividend was quite comfortably covered by Sinoseal Holding's earnings, but it was a bit tighter on the cash flow front. The company is clearly earning enough to pay this type of dividend, but it is definitely focused on returning cash to shareholders, rather than growing the business.
The next year is set to see EPS grow by 44.1%. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could be 50% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range.
Even in its relatively short history, the company has reduced the dividend at least once. Due to this, we are a little bit cautious about the dividend consistency over a full economic cycle. The dividend has gone from an annual total of CN¥0.125 in 2015 to the most recent total annual payment of CN¥1.00. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 26% over that duration. It is great to see strong growth in the dividend payments, but cuts are concerning as it may indicate the payout policy is too ambitious.
Growing earnings per share could be a mitigating factor when considering the past fluctuations in the dividend. It's encouraging to see that Sinoseal Holding has been growing its earnings per share at 11% a year over the past five years. Shareholders are getting plenty of the earnings returned to them, which combined with strong growth makes this quite appealing.
Overall, we don't think this company makes a great dividend stock, even though the dividend wasn't cut this year. The low payout ratio is a redeeming feature, but generally we are not too happy with the payments Sinoseal Holding has been making. We would probably look elsewhere for an income investment.
Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 1 warning sign for Sinoseal Holding that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.
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