Yahoo Finance Don't Buy Telecom Plus PLC (LON:TEP) For Its Next Dividend Without Doing These Checks
It looks like Telecom Plus PLC (LON:TEP) is about to go ex-dividend in the next four days. You can purchase shares before the 9th of July in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 31st of July.
Telecom Plus's upcoming dividend is UK£0.30 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of UK£0.60 per share to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that Telecom Plus has a trailing yield of 4.0% on the current share price of £14.92. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! So we need to investigate whether Telecom Plus can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
See our latest analysis for Telecom Plus
Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Telecom Plus distributed an unsustainably high 124% of its profit as dividends to shareholders last year. Without more sustainable payment behaviour, the dividend looks precarious. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. Telecom Plus paid out more free cash flow than it generated - 147%, to be precise - last year, which we think is concerningly high. It's hard to consistently pay out more cash than you generate without either borrowing or using company cash, so we'd wonder how the company justifies this payout level.
Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Telecom Plus's payments were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we are concerned about the sustainability of this dividend.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Telecom Plus, with earnings per share up 2.5% on average over the last five years. With limited earnings growth and paying out a concerningly high percentage of its earnings, the prospects of future dividend growth don't look so bright here.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Telecom Plus has delivered 11% dividend growth per year on average over the past ten years. It's encouraging to see the company lifting dividends while earnings are growing, suggesting at least some corporate interest in rewarding shareholders.
To Sum It Up
Should investors buy Telecom Plus for the upcoming dividend? The dividends are not well covered by either income or free cash flow, although at least earnings per share are slowly increasing. It's not the most attractive proposition from a dividend perspective, and we'd probably give this one a miss for now.
With that being said, if you're still considering Telecom Plus as an investment, you'll find it beneficial to know what risks this stock is facing. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Telecom Plus (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.
If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
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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