It’s that time of year again. Time for us all to cast a close eye over our stocks and shares ISAs to calculate how much of our £20k allowance remains for the current tax year.
If you’re clued up on this, and are looking for some last-minute buys to stash into your stocks portfolio, then I think you could do a lot worse than to buy into these FTSE 250 dividend heroes. Come take a look.
A defensive dynamo
Primary Health Properties (LSE: PHP) is a company in great shape to deliver strong profits, and thus dividend, growth in the near-term and beyond, I believe.
Why? As a major provider of healthcare facilities in the UK its services remain in high demand irrespective of the state of the economy. And because of the rapid ageing of the domestic population at the present juncture, City analysts are predicting handsome profits growth through the next couple of years at least. These bright forecasts mean that dividends are predicted to keep sweeping higher as well. A full-year reward of 5.6p is anticipated for fiscal 2019, a figure that yields a juicy 4.6%.
If you’re not convinced by Primary Health Properties’s investment case, though, a quick glance at its most recent financials might win you over. The business reported a 19% year-on-year improvement in EPRA earnings during 2018 which rose to £36.8m.
And following its planned all-share merger with MedicX — a move that will create an industry leviathan sporting 479 properties straddling the UK and the Republic of Ireland — the company will be even better placed to benefit from growing government investment in primary healthcare facilities.
A smart choice
Unite Group (LSE: UTG) is another FTSE 250 share that’s I’d very happily buy ahead of the forthcoming ISA deadline.
I can understand why the university accommodation provider might not be everyone’s cup of tea because of concerns over how Brexit will impact the flow of student numbers from abroad. The political hot potato that is immigration means that many big questions affecting the further education arena, like the future of the Erasmus cross-border study programme in the European Union, are still to be solved in the cauldron of Westminster.
I’m not too concerned, though. UK universities have been desirable places to study for centuries for students across the globe, and I cannot see how Britain’s status as one of the academic go-to destinations will either be compromised or dulled.
And nor can City analysts, certainly not in the medium term, who are expecting annual earnings at Unite to keep growing by double-digit percentages through the next couple of years at least. And with good reason. The business commented just this week: “Our strategy of aligning to the best universities and providing good-quality, value-for-money accommodation for resilient segments of the market reinforces our long-term confidence in the business.”
Reflecting its confidence, Unite hiked the full-year dividend 28% year-on-year to 29p per share, and the number crunchers are expecting another hefty upgrade in the current fiscal period to 33.4p. This projection yields a fat 3.7%, and I am confident that the firm can continue to offer up market-mashing dividends long into the future.
