The scale of Britain’s homes shortage, allied with inadequate government action to boost the country’s housing stock, convinces me that Crest Nicholson Holdings (LSE: CRST) should remain a lucrative dividend share for many years to come.
And with the FTSE 250 constructor, like many of its London-quoted peers, having seen its share price dive in 2018 (and touch 16-month troughs just this week) I reckon now is a great time for dip buyers to grab a slice of the action.
Yields rising to 9%
Share pickers have been put off the housebuilders of late after a slew of industry data underlined the moderation in home price growth that really kicked off last year.
Declining property values are no great surprise given the chronic political and economic uncertainty that has put the rampant homes demand of yesteryear to the sword. But on the brighter side, homes demand remains broadly stable and the Bank of England announced last month that mortgage approvals recovered from the three-year troughs plumbed at the turn of the year to record the biggest month-on-month increase since April 2015 in February.
Ultra-attractive interest rates and the government’s Help To Buy scheme are helping to keep homes demand afloat, if nothing else. For the likes of Crest Nicholson, meanwhile, a lack of available properties entering the market is propelling demand for new-build homes ever higher and keeping revenues on a skywards trajectory.
City analysts are predicting that earnings at Crest Nicholson will continue to grow at a much shallower rate compared to the double-digit rises seen before the EU Referendum as slower demand and heavier costs across the construction industry weigh. Advances of 6% and 13% are forecast for the years to October 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Still, these robust figures are enough to underpin predictions of further dividend growth. And so the payout of 33p per share of fiscal 2017 is expected to rise to 35.7p this year and to 40.3p in the following period, resulting in large yields of 8% and 8.9% respectively.
And a mega-low forward P/E ratio of 6 times seals Crest Nicholson’s appealing investment case, in my opinion.
More gigantic yields
I feel those on the lookout for dirt-cheap dividend stocks also need to give Headlam Group (LSE: HEAD) a close look today.
Supported by an expected 6% earnings rise in 2018, the floor coverings giant is expected to raise the dividend to 27.1p per share from 24.8p last year, thus creating a mammoth 6.4% yield.
Moreover, the 4% profits advance forecast for next year leads to predictions of a 28.4p dividend, which in turn nudges the yield to 6.7%.
Despite its bright earnings outlook however, Headlam can be picked up on a forward P/E ratio of just 9.6 times. This is much too cheap given the waves it continues to make across Europe.
The small-cap saw like-for-like revenues in Europe rise 4.2% last year, speeding up from the 3.1% advance reported in 2016. And Headlam is still active on the M&A stage to continue grabbing custom on foreign shores, the business having made three acquisitions last year and more recently Netherlands-based Dersimo earlier in March. There’s plenty for growth and income seekers to get stuck into here.
