The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) is creeping back up a bit today, putting on 47 points to 6,437 approaching midday. Fears that the US Federal Reserve would signal a cutback in stimulus measures have not yet materialised, as minutes of last night’s meeting contained no concrete proposals. But wherever the index is going, shareholders can always rely on a decent FTSE income to keep them going, with the UK’s top index currently offering an average forecast yield of 3.2%.
It does require companies to keep raising their payouts every year, of course. Here are three from the various FTSE indices which have done exactly that this week:
Bovis Homes
On Monday, Bovis Homes Group (LSE: BVS) boosted its first-half dividend by a massive 33% to 4p per share, with earnings per share (EPS) gaining 26% to 10.8p. It was all made possible by a 17% rise in housing revenue and a 19% increase in pre-tax profit, after the housebuilder enjoyed another jump in the number of home completed.
For the full year, the current analysts’ consensus suggests a 38% dividend rise to 12.4p, which would provide a modest 1.6% yield on today’s 796p share price. But it wouldn’t take many years of that kind of growth to reach a decent income, and there’s already a 2.1% yield predicted for 2014.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals
Wednesday was a bounteous day for Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LSE: HIK) shareholders. As well as a 1p rise in their interim dividend to 7p per share, they also learned they are to get an extra 3p as a one-off special dividend. That’s a result of “the exceptional performance of the Generics business“, with Generics revenue up 137%.
After the share price has risen 50% over the past 12 months to 1,097p, the currently-forecast full-year dividend would yield only 1.3%, but that may well be revised upwards now — and it should be very well covered.
Clarkson
Shipping services group Clarkson (LSE: CKN) has also enjoyed a 50% share price rise over the past 12 months, to 1,933p today. And a modest rise in the firm’s first-half dividend was announced on Monday — up 1p to 19p per share. Although Clarkson is experiencing tough conditions, it did manage to grow its underlying EPS by 6.6% to 41.8p.
There’s a dividend of 53p per share currently forecast for the full year, up 2p on last year’s 51p. But the strong share price performance over the past year drops the potential yield from 4.3% to 2.8%, and pushes the P/E up to 22.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.