Albany International (NYSE:AIN) Will Pay A Dividend Of US$0.21

Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) has announced that it will pay a dividend of US$0.21 per share on the 7th of April. This means the annual payment will be 0.9% of the current stock price, which is lower than the industry average.

View our latest analysis for Albany International

Albany International's Dividend Is Well Covered By Earnings

Even a low dividend yield can be attractive if it is sustained for years on end. However, prior to this announcement, Albany International's dividend was comfortably covered by both cash flow and earnings. This means that most of what the business earns is being used to help it grow.

Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to fall by 9.6% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could be 25%, which we consider to be quite comfortable, with most of the company's earnings left over to grow the business in the future.

Albany International Has A Solid Track Record

The company has a sustained record of paying dividends with very little fluctuation. The dividend has gone from US$0.52 in 2012 to the most recent annual payment of US$0.84. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 4.9% a year over that time. Slow and steady dividend growth might not sound that exciting, but dividends have been stable for ten years, which we think makes this a fairly attractive offer.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

The company's investors will be pleased to have been receiving dividend income for some time. It's encouraging to see Albany International has been growing its earnings per share at 18% a year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for Albany International's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.

Albany International Looks Like A Great Dividend Stock

In summary, it is good to see that the dividend is staying consistent, and we don't think there is any reason to suspect this might change over the medium term. The earnings easily cover the company's distributions, and the company is generating plenty of cash. If earnings do fall over the next 12 months, the dividend could be buffeted a little bit, but we don't think it should cause too much of a problem in the long term. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.

It's important to note that companies having a consistent dividend policy will generate greater investor confidence than those having an erratic one. Still, investors need to consider a host of other factors, apart from dividend payments, when analysing a company. Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 6 Albany International analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with our free report on analyst estimates for the company. Is Albany International not quite the opportunity you were looking for? Why not check out our selection of top dividend stocks.

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