Investors seeking to generate strong and sustained income streams from their stock portfolios often fall into the trap of buying the big yielders without looking at the sustainability of their dividend policies.
The FTSE 100’s big beasts like Shell, Aviva, SSE and BT all carry near-term yields north of 5%, but I would only consider buying one of those stocks today (it’s Aviva in case you’re asking) as the profitability on a longer-term time horizon of most of this list looks less than secure.
The term ‘strong and steady wins the race’ can often stand you in good stead when building your investment strategy. With this in mind I am looking at two Footsie-quoted income shares I reckon could make you a million by the time you come to retire.
Services star
DCC (LSE: DCC) has proven itself to be a true dividend aristocrat since it became a public limited company back in the mid 1990s, the firm having hiked the payout for 24 years on the bounce. And it’s more than possible that shareholder rewards should continue their northwards surge.
City analysts share my optimistic take, and supported by anticipated earnings expansion of 17% and 5% in the years to March 2019 and 2020 respectively, predictions of further meaty dividend rises are also in the pipe.
Last year’s 122.98p per share reward is expected to swell to 136.7p in the present period, a projection that yields a handy 1.9%. And the yield edges to 2.1% for next year thanks to the anticipated 146.8p reward.
At today’s share price DCC carries a not-too-demanding forward P/E ratio of 19.3 times. This is decent value in my opinion given the company’s proven record of earnings and dividend expansion.
Sparky acquisition activity has proven a cornerstone of the sales, marketing and support services giant’s growth strategy, a drive that the business said this month had allowed operating profit to grow “well ahead of the prior year” in the three months to June. At the same time DCC announced it had spent another £110m to purchase two new assets, one in the US and one in the UK, to bolster its geographical footprint still further.
On cloud nine
I reckon DCC is a stock that could make investors a mint on the back of this sprightly expansion plan. If you’re impatient and want big yields today, however, a useful addition to your shares portfolio could be easyJet (LSE: EZJ), a share whose spreading presence across the continent should lay the foundations for excellent shareholder returns in the years ahead.
Thanks to rampant demand for cheap plane tickets, easyJet is in rude health right now. It announced this month that revenues jumped 14% during April-June, to £1.6bn, with its capacity expansion drive helping passenger numbers rise 9.3% in the period to 24.4m.
City brokers are expecting the orange-liveried flyer to keep up the pace and thus record earnings rises of 43% and 17% in the years to September 2018 and 2019 respectively. What’s more, these predictions of better profits underpin expectations of better dividends of 55p and 69.4p for this year and next, up from 40.9p last year.
A yield of 3.5% for this year and 4.4% for fiscal 2020 are currently up for grabs. When you throw a low, low forward P/E multiple of 13.5 times into the equation too, I reckon easyJet is too good to miss right now.
