Scicom (MSC) Berhad (KLSE:SCICOM) Is Due To Pay A Dividend Of MYR0.02

Scicom (MSC) Berhad (KLSE:SCICOM) has announced that it will pay a dividend of MYR0.02 per share on the 28th of December. The dividend yield will be 7.4% based on this payment which is still above the industry average.

View our latest analysis for Scicom (MSC) Berhad

Scicom (MSC) Berhad's Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions

A big dividend yield for a few years doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained. Prior to this announcement, Scicom (MSC) Berhad's dividend made up quite a large proportion of earnings but only 74% of free cash flows. Since the dividend is just paying out cash to shareholders, we care more about the cash payout ratio from which we can see plenty is being left over for reinvestment in the business.

Earnings per share is forecast to rise by 22.9% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could reach 77%, which is on the higher side, but certainly still feasible.

Dividend Volatility

Although the company has a long dividend history, it has been cut at least once in the last 10 years. The dividend has gone from an annual total of MYR0.025 in 2013 to the most recent total annual payment of MYR0.08. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 12% a year over that time. It is great to see strong growth in the dividend payments, but cuts are concerning as it may indicate the payout policy is too ambitious.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve

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. Earnings have grown at around 3.2% a year for the past five years, which isn't massive but still better than seeing them shrink. Slow growth and a high payout ratio could mean that Scicom (MSC) Berhad has maxed out the amount that it has been able to pay to shareholders. When a company prefers to pay out cash to its shareholders instead of reinvesting it, this can often say a lot about that company's dividend prospects.

In Summary

Overall, we don't think this company makes a great dividend stock, even though the dividend wasn't cut this year. The payments haven't been particularly stable and we don't see huge growth potential, but with the dividend well covered by cash flows it could prove to be reliable over the short term. We would probably look elsewhere for an income investment.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. For example, we've picked out 2 warning signs for Scicom (MSC) 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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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.