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AlzChem Group AG (ETR:ACT) will increase its dividend from last year's comparable payment on the 10th of May to €1.20. Although the dividend is now higher, the yield is only 3.3%, which is below the industry average.
While the dividend yield is important for income investors, it is also important to consider any large share price moves, as this will generally outweigh any gains from distributions. Investors will be pleased to see that AlzChem Group's stock price has increased by 42% in the last 3 months, which is good for shareholders and can also explain a decrease in the dividend yield.
Check out our latest analysis for AlzChem Group
AlzChem Group's Earnings Easily Cover The Distributions
It would be nice for the yield to be higher, but we should also check if higher levels of dividend payment would be sustainable. However, AlzChem Group's earnings easily cover the dividend. As a result, a large proportion of what it earned was being reinvested back into the business.
Looking forward, earnings per share is forecast to rise by 47.6% over the next year. If the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio will be 19%, which is in the range that makes us comfortable with the sustainability of the dividend.
AlzChem Group's Dividend Has Lacked Consistency
Even in its relatively short history, the company has reduced the dividend at least once. Due to this, we are a little bit cautious about the dividend consistency over a full economic cycle. Since 2018, the annual payment back then was €1.10, compared to the most recent full-year payment of €1.20. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 1.5% over that duration. We're glad to see the dividend has risen, but with a limited rate of growth and fluctuations in the payments the total shareholder return may be limited.
The Dividend Has Growth Potential
With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. It's encouraging to see that AlzChem Group has been growing its earnings per share at 8.9% a year over the past five years. With a decent amount of growth and a low payout ratio, we think this bodes well for AlzChem Group's prospects of growing its dividend payments in the future.
We Really Like AlzChem Group's Dividend
Overall, a dividend increase is always good, and we think that AlzChem Group 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.