Entrust Inc.'s (TSE:7191) investors are due to receive a payment of ¥17.50 per share on 9th of June. The payment will take the dividend yield to 2.9%, which is in line with the average for the industry.
We aren't too impressed by dividend yields unless they can be sustained over time. Based on the last payment, Entrust was quite comfortably earning enough to cover the dividend. This means that a large portion of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.
The next year is set to see EPS grow by 8.5%. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could be 56% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range.
See our latest analysis for Entrust
The dividend hasn't seen any major cuts in the past, but the company has only been paying a dividend for 3 years, which isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. Since 2022, the dividend has gone from ¥13.50 total annually to ¥35.00. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 37% a year over that time. It is always nice to see strong dividend growth, but with such a short payment history we wouldn't be inclined to rely on it until a longer track record can be developed.
Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. It's encouraging to see that Entrust has been growing its earnings per share at 15% 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, a dividend increase is always good, and we think that Entrust 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. Taking this all into consideration, this looks like it could be a good dividend opportunity.
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. Now, if you want to look closer, it would be worth checking out our free research on Entrust management tenure, salary, and performance. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.
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