Tread With Caution Around Apetit Oyj's (HEL:APETIT) 3.7% Dividend Yield

Could Apetit Oyj (HEL:APETIT) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations.

With Apetit Oyj yielding 3.7% and having paid a dividend for over 10 years, many investors likely find the company quite interesting. It would not be a surprise to discover that many investors buy it for the dividends. There are a few simple ways to reduce the risks of buying Apetit Oyj for its dividend, and we'll go through these below.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Apetit Oyj!

Payout ratios

Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. While Apetit Oyj pays a dividend, it reported a loss over the last year. When a company recently reported a loss, we should investigate if its cash flows covered the dividend.

Apetit Oyj paid out 127% of its free cash flow last year, which we think is concerning if cash flows do not improve.

While the above analysis focuses on dividends relative to a company's earnings, we do note Apetit Oyj's strong net cash position, which will let it pay larger dividends for a time, should it choose.

We update our data on Apetit Oyj every 24 hours, so you can always get our latest analysis of its financial health, here.

Dividend Volatility

Before buying a stock for its income, we want to see if the dividends have been stable in the past, and if the company has a track record of maintaining its dividend. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Apetit Oyj's dividend payments. The dividend has been cut on at least one occasion historically. During the past 10-year period, the first annual payment was €0.4 in 2011, compared to €0.5 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 1.7% per year over this time. The growth in dividends has not been linear, but the CAGR is a decent approximation of the rate of change over this time frame.

It's good to see some dividend growth, but the dividend has been cut at least once, and the size of the cut would eliminate most of the growth, anyway. We're not that enthused by this.

Dividend Growth Potential

Given that the dividend has been cut in the past, we need to check if earnings are growing and if that might lead to stronger dividends in the future. Apetit Oyj has grown its earnings per share at 7.6% per annum over the past five years. Earnings per share have been growing at a credible rate. What's more, the payout ratio is reasonable and provides some protection to the dividend, or even the potential to increase it.

Conclusion

Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. Apetit Oyj's dividend is not well covered by free cash flow, plus it paid a dividend while being unprofitable. Unfortunately, earnings growth has also been mediocre, and the company has cut its dividend at least once in the past. Using these criteria, Apetit Oyj looks quite suboptimal from a dividend investment perspective.

Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. As an example, we've identified 2 warning signs for Apetit Oyj that you should be aware of before investing.

If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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