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Could Kaveri Seed Company Limited (NSE:KSCL) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. Yet sometimes, investors buy a popular dividend stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations.
Investors might not know much about Kaveri Seed's dividend prospects, even though it has been paying dividends for the last nine years and offers a 0.6% yield. While the yield may not look too great, the relatively long payment history is interesting. The company also bought back stock equivalent to around 6.7% of market capitalisation this year. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding Kaveri Seed for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below.
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Payout ratios
Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. In the last year, Kaveri Seed paid out 8.9% of its profit as dividends. Given the low payout ratio, it is hard to envision the dividend coming under threat, barring a catastrophe.
Consider getting our latest analysis on Kaveri Seed's financial position here.
Dividend Volatility
One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the last decade of data, we can see that Kaveri Seed paid its first dividend at least nine years ago. Although it has been paying a dividend for several years now, the dividend has been cut at least once by more than 20%, and we're cautious about the consistency of its dividend across a full economic cycle. During the past nine-year period, the first annual payment was ₹0.40 in 2010, compared to ₹3.00 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 25% per year over this time. The dividends haven't grown at precisely 25% every year, but this is a useful way to average out the historical rate of growth.
It's not great to see that the payment has been cut in the past. We're generally more wary of companies that have cut their dividend before, as they tend to perform worse in an economic downturn.