Alico's (NASDAQ:ALCO) Upcoming Dividend Will Be Larger Than Last Year's

Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend on the 9th of July to US$0.50. This takes the annual payment to 2.8% of the current stock price, which is about average for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Alico

Alico's Payment Has Solid Earnings Coverage

We like a dividend to be consistent over the long term, so checking whether it is sustainable is important. Alico is quite easily earning enough to cover the dividend, however it is being let down by weak cash flows. In general, we consider cash flow to be more important than earnings, so we would be cautious about relying on the sustainability of this dividend.

EPS is set to fall by 15.4% over the next 12 months. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could be 31%, which we consider to be quite comfortable, with most of the company's earnings left over to grow the business in the future.

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 dividend has gone from US$0.40 in 2011 to the most recent annual payment of US$2.00. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 17% per annum 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.

The Dividend Looks Likely To Grow

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. Alico has impressed us by growing EPS at 27% per year over the past five years. Earnings per share is growing at a solid clip, and the payout ratio is low which we think is an ideal combination in a dividend stock as the company can quite easily raise the dividend in the future.

In Summary

Overall, this is probably not a great income stock, even though the dividend is being raised at the moment. While the low payout ratio is redeeming feature, this is offset by the minimal cash to cover the payments. 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. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. For example, we've identified 4 warning signs for Alico (2 can't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high performing dividend stock.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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