Gamuda Berhad (KLSE:GAMUDA) Has Affirmed Its Dividend Of MYR0.06

The board of Gamuda Berhad (KLSE:GAMUDA) has announced that it will pay a dividend of MYR0.06 per share on the 2nd of March. This means that the annual payment will be 3.1% of the current stock price, which is in line with the average for the industry.

See our latest analysis for Gamuda Berhad

Gamuda Berhad Doesn't Earn Enough To Cover Its Payments

We aren't too impressed by dividend yields unless they can be sustained over time. Gamuda Berhad was earning enough to cover the previous dividend, but it was paying out quite a large proportion of its free cash flows. The business is earning enough to make the dividend feasible, but the cash payout ratio of 80% indicates it is more focused on returning cash to shareholders than growing the business.

Earnings per share is forecast to rise by 57.5% over the next year. If the dividend continues on its recent course, the payout ratio in 12 months could be 144%, which is a bit high and could start applying pressure to the balance sheet.

Dividend Volatility

While the company has been paying a dividend for a long time, it has cut the dividend at least once in the last 10 years. The last annual payment of MYR0.12 was flat on the annual payment from10 years ago. Modest growth in the dividend is good to see, but we think this is offset by historical cuts to the payments. It is hard to live on a dividend income if the company's earnings are not consistent.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Come By

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to evaluate if earnings per share is growing, which could point to a growing dividend in the future. Gamuda Berhad has seen earnings per share falling at 5.5% per year over the last five years. If earnings continue declining, the company may have to make the difficult choice of reducing the dividend or even stopping it completely - the opposite of dividend growth. It's not all bad news though, as the earnings are predicted to rise over the next 12 months - we would just be a bit cautious until this can turn into a longer term trend.

In Summary

In summary, while it's good to see that the dividend hasn't been cut, we are a bit cautious about Gamuda Berhad's payments, as there could be some issues with sustaining them into the future. The company hasn't been paying a very consistent dividend over time, despite only paying out a small portion of earnings. 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. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. For example, we've picked out 2 warning signs for Gamuda Berhad that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. 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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