Asseco Poland (WSE:ACP) Has Announced That It Will Be Increasing Its Dividend To zł3.11

The board of Asseco Poland S.A. (WSE:ACP) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend by 3.3% on the 18th of June to zł3.11. This takes the annual payment to 4.3% of the current stock price, which is about average for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Asseco Poland

Asseco Poland's Earnings Easily Cover the Distributions

Unless the payments are sustainable, the dividend yield doesn't mean too much. Based on the last payment, Asseco Poland was quite comfortably earning enough to cover the dividend. This indicates that a lot of the earnings are being reinvested into the business, with the aim of fueling growth.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 0.8% over the next year. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could be 65% by next year, which is in a pretty sustainable range.

Asseco Poland Has A Solid Track Record

The company has been paying a dividend for a long time, and it has been quite stable which gives us confidence in the future dividend potential. The dividend has gone from zł1.80 in 2011 to the most recent annual payment of zł3.01. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 5.3% a year over that time. The dividend has been growing very nicely for a number of years, and has given its shareholders some nice income in their portfolios.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Achieve

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. However, Asseco Poland's EPS was effectively flat over the past five years, which could stop the company from paying more every year. Growth of 1.9% may indicate that the company has limited investment opportunity so it is returning its earnings to shareholders instead. This isn't bad in itself, but unless earnings growth pick up we wouldn't expect dividends to grow either.

We Really Like Asseco Poland's Dividend

Overall, a dividend increase is always good, and we think that Asseco Poland is a strong income stock thanks to its track record and growing earnings. Distributions are quite easily covered by earnings, which are also being converted to cash flows. All of these factors considered, we think this has solid potential as a dividend stock.

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. Companies that are growing earnings tend to be the best dividend stocks over the long term. See what the 6 analysts we track are forecasting for Asseco Poland for free with public analyst estimates for the company. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of strong dividend payers.

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