Curtis Banks Group (LON:CBP) Will Pay A Dividend Of UK£0.025

Simply Wall St
·3 min read

The board of Curtis Banks Group plc (LON:CBP) has announced that it will pay a dividend of UK£0.025 per share on the 12th of November. This payment means the dividend yield will be 3.6%, which is below the average for the industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Curtis Banks Group

Curtis Banks Group Doesn't Earn Enough To Cover Its Payments

While yield is important, another factor to consider about a company's dividend is whether the current payout levels are feasible. Before making this announcement, Curtis Banks Group was paying out a fairly large proportion of earnings, and it wasn't generating positive free cash flows either. Generally, we think that this would be a risky long term practice.

Earnings per share could rise by 8.2% over the next year if things go the same way as they have for the last few years. Assuming the dividend continues along recent trends, we think the payout ratio could reach 103%, which probably can't continue without starting to put some pressure on the balance sheet.

historic-dividend
historic-dividend

Curtis Banks Group's Dividend Has Lacked Consistency

Even in its relatively short history, the company has reduced the dividend at least once. If the company cuts once, it definitely isn't argument against the possibility of it cutting in the future. Since 2015, the first annual payment was UK£0.035, compared to the most recent full-year payment of UK£0.09. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 17% a year 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 Has Growth Potential

With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share is growing. Curtis Banks Group has impressed us by growing EPS at 8.2% per year over the past five years. The payout ratio is very much on the higher end, which could mean that the growth rate will slow down in the future, and that could flow through to the dividend as well.

Curtis Banks Group's Dividend Doesn't Look Sustainable

Overall, we don't think this company makes a great dividend stock, even though the dividend wasn't cut this year. In general, the distributions are a little bit higher than we would like, but we can't ignore the fact the quickly growing earnings gives this stock great potential in the future. Overall, we don't think this company has the makings of a good income stock.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. At the same time, there are other factors our readers should be conscious of before pouring capital into a stock. To that end, Curtis Banks Group has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is concerning) we think you should know about. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of high performing dividend stock.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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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