VAT Group (VTX:VACN) Will Pay A Larger Dividend Than Last Year At CHF5.50

VAT Group AG (VTX:VACN) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend on the 24th of May to CHF5.50. Based on the announced payment, the dividend yield for the company will be 2.0%, which is fairly typical for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for VAT Group

VAT Group's Dividend Is Well Covered By Earnings

Unless the payments are sustainable, the dividend yield doesn't mean too much. Prior to this announcement, VAT Group was paying out 76% of earnings and more than 75% of free cash flows. This indicates that the company is more focused on returning cash to shareholders than growing the business, but it is still in a reasonable range to continue with.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 24.9% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 63%, which would make us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend, despite the levels currently being quite high.

VAT Group Doesn't Have A Long Payment History

The dividend's track record has been pretty solid, but with only 5 years of history we want to see a few more years of history before making any solid conclusions. The dividend has gone from CHF4.00 in 2017 to the most recent annual payment of CHF5.50. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 6.6% over that duration. Investors will likely want to see a longer track record of growth before making decision to add this to their income portfolio.

VAT Group Might Find It Hard To Grow Its Dividend

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. It's encouraging to see VAT Group has been growing its earnings per share at 24% a year over the past five years. EPS is growing rapidly, although the company is also paying out a large portion of its profits as dividends. If earnings keep growing, the dividend may be sustainable, but generally we'd prefer to see a fast growing company reinvest in further growth.

In Summary

In summary, while it's always good to see the dividend being raised, we don't think VAT Group's payments are rock solid. While we generally think the level of distributions are a bit high, we wouldn't rule it out as becoming a good dividend payer in the future as its earnings are growing healthily. This company is not in the top tier of income providing stocks.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. For example, we've picked out 2 warning signs for VAT Group that investors should know about before committing capital to this 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.