Shimano (TSE:7309) Has Announced A Dividend Of ¥169.50

Shimano Inc. (TSE:7309) has announced that it will pay a dividend of ¥169.50 per share on the 30th of March. This will take the dividend yield to an attractive 2.1%, providing a nice boost to shareholder returns.

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Shimano's Projected Earnings Seem Likely To Cover Future Distributions

We like to see robust dividend yields, but that doesn't matter if the payment isn't sustainable. Before making this announcement, Shimano was paying out quite a large proportion of both earnings and cash flow, with the dividend being 152% of cash flows. Paying out such a high proportion of cash flows can expose the business to needing to cut the dividend if the business runs into some challenges.

Earnings per share is forecast to rise by 24.9% over the next year. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, our estimates say the payout ratio could reach 84% - on the higher side, but we wouldn't necessarily say this is unsustainable.

Check out our latest analysis for Shimano

Shimano Has A Solid Track Record

The company has been paying a dividend for a long time, and it has been quite stable which gives us confidence in the future dividend potential. Since 2015, the dividend has gone from ¥105.00 total annually to ¥339.00. This implies that the company grew its distributions at a yearly rate of about 12% over that duration. It is good to see that there has been strong dividend growth, and that there haven't been any cuts for a long time.

Dividend Growth May Be Hard To Come By

Investors who have held shares in the company for the past few years will be happy with the dividend income they have received. Unfortunately things aren't as good as they seem. Shimano has seen earnings per share falling at 7.8% per year over the last five years. A modest decline in earnings isn't great, and it makes it quite unlikely that the dividend will grow in the future unless that trend can be reversed. Earnings are predicted to grow over the next year, but we would remain cautious until a track record of earnings growth is established.

Shimano's Dividend Doesn't Look Sustainable

Overall, we always like to see the dividend being raised, but we don't think Shimano will make a great income stock. We can't deny that the payments have been very stable, but we are a little bit worried about the very high payout ratio. Overall, we don't think this company has the makings of a good 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. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Shimano (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high yield dividend stocks.