StepLtd's (TSE:9795) Dividend Will Be ¥37.00

Step Co.,Ltd.'s (TSE:9795) investors are due to receive a payment of ¥37.00 per share on 19th of December. The dividend yield of 3.7% is still a nice boost to shareholder returns, despite the cut.

See our latest analysis for StepLtd

StepLtd's Dividend Is Well Covered By Earnings

Impressive dividend yields are good, but this doesn't matter much if the payments can't be sustained. The last dividend was quite easily covered by StepLtd's earnings. This means that a large portion of its earnings are being retained to grow the business.

If the trend of the last few years continues, EPS will grow by 7.3% over the next 12 months. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 48%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.

StepLtd Doesn't Have A Long Payment History

It is great to see that StepLtd has been paying a stable dividend for a number of years now, however we want to be a bit cautious about whether this will remain true through a full economic cycle. The annual payment during the last 5 years was ¥40.00 in 2019, and the most recent fiscal year payment was ¥74.00. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 13% over that duration. The dividend has been growing rapidly, however with such a short payment history we can't know for sure if payment can continue to grow over the long term, so caution may be warranted.

The Dividend Has Growth Potential

Investors who have held shares in the company for the past few years will be happy with the dividend income they have received. It's encouraging to see that StepLtd has been growing its earnings per share at 7.3% a year over the past five years. Shareholders are getting plenty of the earnings returned to them, which combined with strong growth makes this quite appealing.

In Summary

Even though the dividend was cut this year, we think StepLtd has the ability to make consistent payments in the future. The payout ratio looks good, but unfortunately the company's dividend track record isn't stellar. The dividend looks okay, but there have been some issues in the past, so we would be a little bit cautious.

Market movements attest to how highly valued a consistent dividend policy is compared to one which is more unpredictable. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 1 warning sign for StepLtd that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Is StepLtd not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.

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