Inchcape's (LON:INCH) Dividend Will Be £0.113

Inchcape plc (LON:INCH) will pay a dividend of £0.113 on the 6th of September. The payment will take the dividend yield to 4.1%, which is in line with the average for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Inchcape

Inchcape's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

Unless the payments are sustainable, the dividend yield doesn't mean too much. The last dividend was quite easily covered by Inchcape's earnings. This means that a large portion of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 43.9% over the next year. If the dividend continues on this path, the payout ratio could be 38% by next year, which we think can be pretty sustainable going forward.

Dividend Volatility

Although the company has a long dividend history, it has been cut at least once in the last 10 years. Since 2014, the dividend has gone from £0.174 total annually to £0.339. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 6.9% per annum over that time. We have seen cuts in the past, so while the growth looks promising we would be a little bit cautious about its track record.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. It's encouraging to see that Inchcape has been growing its earnings per share at 49% a year over the past five years. The company doesn't have any problems growing, despite returning a lot of capital to shareholders, which is a very nice combination for a dividend stock to have.

Inchcape Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

Overall, a dividend increase is always good, and we think that Inchcape is a strong income stock thanks to its track record and growing earnings. Earnings are easily covering distributions, and the company is generating plenty of cash. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 2 warning signs for Inchcape 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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