As my Foolish colleague Peter Stephens recently pointed out, the FTSE 250 is usually viewed as a growth index. And for a good reason, the FTSE 250 has generated capital growth of around 8% per annum for the past decade. Nearly three times higher than the capital return of the UK’s leading blue-chip index, the FTSE 100.
However, while the FTSE 250 as a whole is best known for its capital growth credentials, some of its constituents offer handsome dividend yields.
Market recovery
Oil services company Petrofac (LSE: PFC) has suffered the perfect storm over the past five years. An investigation into its business practices by the Serious Fraud Office, coupled with the falling oil price, sent the shares into freefall towards the end of 2014.
But now the group’s outlook is starting to recover. Despite all of its problems, Petrofac has continued to win contracts from customers. Revenues have remained relatively stable, rising from $6.3bn in 2013 to $6.4bn. Although for the past three years, the business has reported a loss, which unfortunately forced management to slash Petrofac’s dividend by 80% last year.
Nonetheless, orders keep coming from customers. Today the firm announced that it has inked $1.2bn worth of deals in the first half of 2018 and has $20bn of bid opportunities up for award in the second half.
As it continues to win customers, it’s no surprise City analysts are expecting a modest recovery in earnings this year. After losing $29m last year, analysts have pencilled in a net profit of $285m for 2018, equivalent to 63p per share. They believe this higher level of income will give management headroom to increase the dividend 200% to $0.38 per share (29p) for a projected dividend yield of 5.4%.
What’s more, according to these estimates, the shares currently trade on just 8.5 times forecast earnings, a discount of 46% to the broader market according to my calculations. In my view, this is too cheap to ignore.
Cash cow
One other high-yield FTSE 250 dividend stock I’ve got my eye on right now is Crest Nicholson Holdings (LSE: CRST).
Crest’s shares have a very high yield at present. Last year, the company paid shareholders 33p per share in dividends, which means that the trailing yield is currently a massive 8.3%. For some comparison, the average dividend yield of all public stocks in the UK is just over 3%.
If income is your goal, I believe Crest certainly deserves a place in your portfolio. Analysts estimate the company will repeat last year’s 33p per share distribution in 2018. So it looks as if the 8.3% dividend yield is here to stay. Also, the stock is currently changing hands for just 6.2 times forward earnings, making it not only one of the best income stocks around, but one of the cheapest stocks on the UK market as well.
The company’s management certainly hasn’t wasted any time taking advantage of this opportunity. So far this year, insiders have splashed out £150,000 snapping up shares in the homebuilder to take advantage of market weakness. This is the most substantial buying activity for several years, and I believe it could be worth following.
Given that the stock trades on a forward P/E of just 6.2 and yields more than double the market average, I believe the risk/reward profile is highly attractive.
