Healthia (ASX:HLA) Is Increasing Its Dividend To AU$0.025

Healthia Limited's (ASX:HLA) dividend will be increasing to AU$0.025 on 27th of October. This makes the dividend yield about the same as the industry average at 2.3%.

Check out our latest analysis for Healthia

Healthia's Earnings Easily Cover the Distributions

While it is always good to see a solid dividend yield, we should also consider whether the payment is feasible. Based on the last payment, Healthia was quite comfortably earning enough to cover the dividend. This indicates that quite a large proportion of earnings is being invested back into the business.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 106.9% over the next year. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could be 34% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range.

Healthia Is Still Building Its Track Record

It is tough to make a judgement on how stable a dividend is when the company hasn't been paying one for very long. This doesn't mean that the company can't pay a good dividend, but just that we want to wait until it can prove itself.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

Some investors will be chomping at the bit to buy some of the company's stock based on its dividend history. It's encouraging to see Healthia has been growing its earnings per share at 123% a year over the past three years. Healthia is clearly able to grow rapidly while still returning cash to shareholders, positioning it to become a strong dividend payer in the future.

We'd also point out that Healthia has issued stock equal to 43% of shares outstanding. Regularly doing this can be detrimental - it's hard to grow dividends per share when new shares are regularly being created.

We Really Like Healthia's Dividend

In summary, it is always positive to see the dividend being increased, and we are particularly pleased with its overall sustainability. The company is easily earning enough to cover its dividend payments and it is great to see that these earnings are being translated into cash flow. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.

Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. For example, we've picked out 4 warning signs for Healthia that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. We have also put together a list of global stocks with a solid dividend.

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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.
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