Cancom (ETR:COK) Will Pay A Larger Dividend Than Last Year At €1.00

Cancom SE's (ETR:COK) dividend will be increasing to €1.00 on 1st of July. This will take the dividend yield from 2.8% to 2.8%, providing a nice boost to shareholder returns.

While the dividend yield is important for income investors, it is also important to consider any large share price moves, as this will generally outweigh any gains from distributions. Cancom's stock price has reduced by 31% in the last 3 months, which is not ideal for investors and can explain a sharp increase in the dividend yield.

View our latest analysis for Cancom

Cancom's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained. Prior to this announcement, Cancom was paying out 86% 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 we don't think that there are necessarily signs that the dividend might be unsustainable.

Earnings per share is forecast to rise by 27.9% over the next year. If recent patterns in the dividend continues, the payout ratio in 12 months could be 76% which is a bit high but can definitely be sustainable.

Cancom Has A Solid Track Record

The company has an extended history of paying stable dividends. Since 2012, the first annual payment was €0.15, compared to the most recent full-year payment of €1.00. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 21% over that duration. Rapidly growing dividends for a long time is a very valuable feature for an income stock.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve

Some investors will be chomping at the bit to buy some of the company's stock based on its dividend history. However, Cancom has only grown its earnings per share at 3.3% per annum over the past five years. Earnings are not growing quickly at all, and the company is paying out most of its profit as dividends. When a company prefers to pay out cash to its shareholders instead of reinvesting it, this can often say a lot about that company's dividend prospects.

In Summary

Overall, this is probably not a great income stock, even though the dividend is being raised at the moment. We can't deny that the payments have been very stable, but we are a little bit worried about the very high payout ratio. This company is not in the top tier of income providing stocks.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 2 warning signs for Cancom that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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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.