Seikitokyu Kogyo (TSE:1898) Is Paying Out A Dividend Of ¥45.00

Seikitokyu Kogyo Co., Ltd.'s (TSE:1898) investors are due to receive a payment of ¥45.00 per share on 4th of December. This makes the dividend yield 5.3%, which will augment investor returns quite nicely.

See our latest analysis for Seikitokyu Kogyo

Seikitokyu Kogyo Doesn't Earn Enough To Cover Its Payments

If the payments aren't sustainable, a high yield for a few years won't matter that much. Based on the last payment, Seikitokyu Kogyo's profits didn't cover the dividend, but the company was generating enough cash instead. Given that the dividend is a cash outflow, we think that cash is more important than accounting measures of profit when assessing the dividend, so this is a mitigating factor.

Looking forward, EPS could fall by 2.7% if the company can't turn things around from the last few years. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we believe the payout ratio could reach 149%, which could put the dividend under pressure if earnings don't start to improve.

Dividend Volatility

The company has a long dividend track record, but it doesn't look great with cuts in the past. Since 2014, the dividend has gone from ¥10.00 total annually to ¥90.00. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 25% a year over that time. 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.

Seikitokyu Kogyo May Find It Hard To Grow The Dividend

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. It's not great to see that Seikitokyu Kogyo's earnings per share has fallen at approximately 2.7% per year over the past five years. Declining earnings will inevitably lead to the company paying a lower dividend in line with lower profits.

Seikitokyu Kogyo's Dividend Doesn't Look Sustainable

Overall, it's nice to see a consistent dividend payment, but we think that longer term, the current level of payment might be unsustainable. The company is generating plenty of cash, which could maintain the dividend for a while, but the track record hasn't been great. 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. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Seikitokyu Kogyo (of which 1 can't be ignored!) you should know about. 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.

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