We’ve already looked at three FTSE 100 companies going ex-dividend next week, and we have a relatively busy week with a few more to come. It’s an important date too, whether you want to hold on to the shares and get your money, or wait in the hope of a disproportionately big price drop and maybe snag a bargain.
Here are three more reaching their big date next Wednesday, 4 September:
ARM Holdings
ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM) (NASDAQ: ARMH) is not exactly known as a great payer of dividends, but they are rising and the chip designer is set to make a first-half payment of 2.1p per share. That’s up 26% on the same period last year, and a similar rise at year-end would provide 5.67p for a yield of 0.6% on the current share price of 878p.
ARM has been boosting its dividend quite strongly — last year the rise was 29%, the previous year 20% — but the strongly-rising share price is keeping the yield consistently low. The shares are up around 50% over the past 12 months, though they have been a lot higher, and a transition from growth to income does not look imminent.
Shire
It’s a half-time dividend to come from Shire (LSE: SHP) too, with shareholders to get 1.95p per share — up 12% from the 1.74p paid at the same stage a year ago. Shire is another that doesn’t yield very much, with forecasts for the year to December suggesting just 0.5% on a 2,405p share price.
But at least the payout rises steadily year-on-year, and it’s very well covered. There’s a 70% rise in earnings per share (EPS) currently predicted, and that would cover the dividend more than 12-fold. And Shire is also returning cash to shareholders through a $500m share buyback — as of the interim date, the firm had purchased shares to the value of $289.9m.
TUI Travel
Our third company, TUI Travel (LSE: TT), is also on a first-half dividend, and shareholders have had to wait a long time for it — the six months ended in March with the results out in May, and we’ve even had Q3 results since then. Anyway, it was a strong first half, with the expected seasonal first-half loss improving to £289m from £317m a year previously, and the firm saw fit to up its interim dividend by 10% to 3.75p per share.
We’re looking at better yields here, with 3.6% penciled in for the full year. The recovery in TUI’s share price, which is up 66% to 346p over the past 12 months, has lowered the yield — two years ago brave investors could have had more than 7%.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
