Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) has impressed the market over the past few years as the bank’s earnings have recovered, its capital cushion has improved significantly, and it has resumed dividend payouts to investors.
For 2017, City analysts are expecting Lloyds to distribute a total of 4.1p per share to investors, giving a healthy dividend yield of 6.1% at the time of writing. This healthy distribution follows a payout of 2.25p in 2015 and 2.55p in 2016 as well as two special dividends paid during this time.
With such an impressive dividend growth record, Lloyds is rapidly becoming one of the FTSE 100’s top dividend stocks. However, it’s not the only Footsie dividend growth stock that deserves a place in your income portfolio.
Cash cow
Lloyds’ blue-chip peer Burberry (LSE: BRBY) has been building a reputation for itself as one of the market’s top income stocks for some time. With an operating profit margin of nearly 15%, the group is cash rich, and it generates plenty of funds to both reinvest back into the business and return to shareholders.
Over the past five years, the dividend payout has grown by around 10% per annum and at the time of writing, the share supports a dividend yield of 2.7%, which is covered twice by earnings per share. What’s more, according to its most recent set of results, Burberry has around £654m of net cash on the balance sheet, which is a more than enough to support the dividend payout for several years. Indeed for the fiscal year to the end of March 2017, the payout only cost a total of £164m, so even if the company’s earnings disappeared altogether overnight, it would still be able to fund its dividend for four years.
As well as the dividend, management has also started to return cash via share buybacks. By buying back stock, the company can increase earnings per share, which should translate into share price capital gains, allowing investors to benefit from both dividend income and capital growth.
Steady payout growth
Unfortunately, over the next two years, City analysts believe that Burburry’s EPS will contract marginally, but this should not put any pressure on the dividend. In fact, analysts are expecting the dividend to continue to grow during this period as Burberry’s wide profit margins give it plenty of room for manoeuvre.
City analysts also believe that strong capital generation will underpin dividend growth for Lloyds. Unlike its close peer RBS, Lloyds has the problem of having too much capital. Analysts think that the company ended 2017 with a Tier 1 capital ratio of 14%, 2% above its target of 12%. This means that it is well placed to increase cash distributions to investors.
Estimates vary, but on average, analysts are expecting the bank to announce a full-year dividend of 4.1p for 2017. But some figures are as high as 5p and one set of analysts expects the company to complement its dividend distribution with a £500m share buyback. Even at the most conservative estimations, the bank is now on track to support a dividend yield of 6.8% for 2018, that’s excluding any special dividend distributions or other capital return. When coupled with its low valuation of early 9.2 times forward earnings, it’s difficult to pass up this market-beating dividend yield.
