The board of Sun Frontier Fudousan Co., Ltd. (TSE:8934) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 25th of June, with investors receiving ¥38.00 per share. This will take the dividend yield to an attractive 3.2%, providing a nice boost to shareholder returns.
Sun Frontier Fudousan's Future Dividend Projections Appear Well Covered By Earnings
While it is great to have a strong dividend yield, we should also consider whether the payment is sustainable. Sun Frontier Fudousan is quite easily earning enough to cover the dividend, however it is being let down by weak cash flows. We think that cash flows should take priority over earnings, so this is definitely a worry for the dividend going forward.
Over the next year, EPS could expand by 23.3% if recent trends continue. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 18%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.
Check out our latest analysis for Sun Frontier Fudousan
Sun Frontier Fudousan Has A Solid Track Record
Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. Since 2015, the annual payment back then was ¥16.50, compared to the most recent full-year payment of ¥76.00. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 17% per annum over that time. So, dividends have been growing pretty quickly, and even more impressively, they haven't experienced any notable falls during this period.
The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow
The company's investors will be pleased to have been receiving dividend income for some time. We are encouraged to see that Sun Frontier Fudousan has grown earnings per share at 23% per year over the past five years. A low payout ratio gives the company a lot of flexibility, and growing earnings also make it very easy for it to grow the dividend.
In Summary
In summary, while it's always good to see the dividend being raised, we don't think Sun Frontier Fudousan's payments are rock solid. While Sun Frontier Fudousan is earning enough to cover the payments, the cash flows are lacking. We would be a touch cautious of relying on this stock primarily for the dividend income.
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 Sun Frontier Fudousan (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) 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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