Delignit's (ETR:DLX) Dividend Will Be Reduced To €0.05

Delignit AG's (ETR:DLX) dividend is being reduced by 38% to €0.05 per share on 17th of June, in comparison to last year's comparable payment of €0.08. The dividend yield will be in the average range for the industry at 3.3%.

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Delignit's Future Dividend Projections Appear Well Covered By Earnings

Unless the payments are sustainable, the dividend yield doesn't mean too much. Prior to this announcement, Delignit's dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. This means that a large portion of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.

Analysts expect a massive rise in earnings per share in the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 15%, so there isn't too much pressure on the dividend.

View our latest analysis for Delignit

Dividend Volatility

While the company has been paying a dividend for a long time, it has cut the dividend at least once in the last 10 years. The annual payment during the last 10 years was €0.03 in 2015, and the most recent fiscal year payment was €0.08. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 10% over that duration. Despite the rapid growth in the dividend over the past number of years, we have seen the payments go down the past as well, so that makes us cautious.

Dividend Growth Is Doubtful

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. Delignit has seen earnings per share falling at 8.8% per year over the last five years. If earnings continue declining, the company may have to make the difficult choice of reducing the dividend or even stopping it completely - the opposite of dividend growth. It's not all bad news though, as the earnings are predicted to rise over the next 12 months - we would just be a bit cautious until this can turn into a longer term trend.

In Summary

Overall, it's not great to see that the dividend has been cut, but this might be explained by the payments being a bit high previously. In the past, the payments have been unstable, but over the short term the dividend could be reliable, with the company generating enough cash to cover it. We don't think Delignit is a great stock to add to your portfolio if income is your focus.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. For instance, we've picked out 3 warning signs for Delignit that investors should take into consideration. Is Delignit not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.

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