The board of Gakken Holdings Co., Ltd. (TSE:9470) has announced that it will be paying its dividend of ¥14.50 on the 5th of June, an increased payment from last year's comparable dividend. This takes the dividend yield to 2.6%, which shareholders will be pleased with.
While it is great to have a strong dividend yield, we should also consider whether the payment is sustainable. However, prior to this announcement, Gakken Holdings' dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. This means that most of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.
Over the next year, EPS is forecast to expand by 10.5%. If the dividend continues on this path, the payout ratio could be 31% by next year, which we think can be pretty sustainable going forward.
View our latest analysis for Gakken Holdings
The company has a sustained record of paying dividends with very little fluctuation. Since 2016, the dividend has gone from ¥12.50 total annually to ¥29.00. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 8.8% over that duration. The growth of the dividend has been pretty reliable, so we think this can offer investors some nice additional income in their portfolio.
Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. We are encouraged to see that Gakken Holdings has grown earnings per share at 6.6% per year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for Gakken Holdings' prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.
In summary, it is always positive to see the dividend being increased, and we are particularly pleased with its overall sustainability. 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.
Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. You can also discover whether shareholders are aligned with insider interests by checking our visualisation of insider shareholdings and trades in Gakken Holdings stock. 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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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.