UMS Holdings (SGX:558) Has Announced A Dividend Of SGD0.01

The board of UMS Holdings Limited (SGX:558) has announced that it will pay a dividend on the 27th of July, with investors receiving SGD0.01 per share. This means the dividend yield will be fairly typical at 5.2%.

See our latest analysis for UMS Holdings

UMS Holdings' Dividend Is Well Covered By Earnings

While it is always good to see a solid dividend yield, we should also consider whether the payment is feasible. But before making this announcement, UMS Holdings' earnings quite easily covered the dividend. The business is earning enough to make the dividend feasible, but the cash payout ratio of 91% shows that most of the cash is going back to the shareholders, which could constrain growth prospects going forward.

EPS is set to fall by 14.1% over the next 12 months. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we believe the payout ratio could be 42%, which we are pretty comfortable with and we think is feasible on an earnings basis.

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. Since 2013, the dividend has gone from SGD0.0307 total annually to SGD0.05. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 5.0% per annum over that time. 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.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

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. It's encouraging to see that UMS Holdings has been growing its earnings per share at 13% a year over the past five years. A low payout ratio and decent growth suggests that the company is reinvesting well, and it also has plenty of room to increase the dividend over time.

Our Thoughts On UMS Holdings' Dividend

In summary, while it's good to see that the dividend hasn't been cut, we are a bit cautious about UMS Holdings' payments, as there could be some issues with sustaining them into the future. While UMS Holdings is earning enough to cover the dividend, we are generally unimpressed with its future prospects. 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. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. For instance, we've picked out 1 warning sign for UMS Holdings that investors should take into consideration. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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