Over the last 100 years the S&P 500 rose 273-fold, but adjusted for dividends it rose 18,520-fold.

Dividends are a massive component of long-term investing results. If you’re interested in income-producing, dividend-paying shares, you may be interested in the payout on offer from arguably the most prestigious dividend-payer on the UK stock market.

The oil price has risen back above $40 per barrel, and that is obviously very good news for Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB). The shares have responded well to the development — but are they a good “Buy” today for income-seekers?

The fundamental attraction to Shell for most investors is its considerable dividend. This year UK shareholders should see a bumper payment in sterling terms as the dividends are declared in US dollars and translated to Sterling.

Shareholders can expect around 132p in dividends this year spread out across 4 equal installments, of course subject to further currency fluctuations. They have already announced that they intend to pay 47 cents a share for Q1, which at the current exchange rate to the pound is around 33p.

The big talking point for Shell investors of late has been the takeover of BG Group.

Despite recent commodity price fluctuation, Shell certainly has the resources to play the long game. In addition to acquiring BG Group’s oil assets, they created the world’s largest supplier of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). It is an area that Shell knows well, having pioneered the production of LNG in 1964.

Presently, the main thing propping up the share price is the dividend, but big moves in the oil price go straight to the bottom line and into cash flows. The move from $27 to $40 has clearly relieved investors with the share price having risen from a low of £12.77 to £16.69 today.

With a dividend yield of over 7.5%, and with the dividend looking reasonably safe, that provides a solid support for the share price — but potentially rising oil prices mean that the ceiling could be very high indeed.

The post Dividend of the Day: Is 7.5% Yielding Royal Dutch Shell Plc A ‘No Brainer’? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Mark Riding has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Royal Dutch Shell. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Over the last 100 years the S&P 500 rose 273-fold, but adjusted for dividends it rose 18,520-fold.

Dividends are a massive component of long-term investing results. If you’re interested in income-producing, dividend-paying shares, you may be interested in the payout on offer from one of the UK’s leading homebuilders.

The house builders have fallen heavily recently on fears of what a “Brexit” could do to the London housing market.  There have also been concerns over the scarcer availability of labour for housebuilders that may result from a Brexit.

However, according to bookmakers Betfair, the odds of a Brexit are three to one. “Staying in” remains the strong favourite by the odds, and while an upset could occur, the bookmakers rarely get it wrong.

This could be good news for the house builders, and might represent an opportunity — especially as UK housing fundamentals remain strongly in favour of further building. Demand is still outstripping supply by a distance, in the south-east especially.

If you’re looking for income, most of the house builders have already paid their bumper special dividend payouts for the year. According to data from DividendMax, there is one exception — and that is Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW), which is paying two dividends between now and 2 June.

On 7 April they go ex-dividend for 1.18p and on 2 June they go ex for 9.22p, for a total of 10.4 pence. With the shares trading at 172 pence this means a total dividend yield of 6% from the maintenance dividend (as Taylor Wimpey like to call it) and the special dividend.

Taylor Wimpey has net cash of £223m and in its recent financial results said that 2016 had started strongly, so the outlook seems bright.  They built 7.5% more homes last year than in the previous year and the average selling price was 8% higher. This resulted in a 34% increase in pre-tax profits to just shy of £604 million, which is fuelling these healthy dividend payments.

(And if you are really worried about Brexit, you could always hedge your position by having a punt on Betfair to treble your money… just kidding!)

The post Dividend of the Day: Why Taylor Wimpey plc’s 6% Yield Is On My Income Radar appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Mark Riding has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Over the last 100 years the S&P 500 rose 273-fold, but adjusted for dividends it rose 18,520-fold.

Dividends are a massive component of long-term investing results. If you’re interested in income-producing, dividend-paying shares, you may be interested in the payout on offer from one of the UK’s leading media companies.

Last week ITV (LSE: ITV) produced their final results for 2015 and once again they were very good. That said, the shares have since sold off, despite management predicting further growth in 2016. Profits per share came in at a higher than expected 16.26p, translating into a price-to-earnings multiple of just over 14.

One of the features of ITV over the past 6 years of double-digit earnings growth has been the growth in the dividend and the ordinary dividend has grown by 62.5%, 34.6%, 34.3% and 27.7% in the past 4 years.

In addition to this, there have been special dividends, and ITV did not disappoint this year either, with a special payout of 10p per share.

Taken together with the final dividend, that means a total of 14.1 pence per share will be paid out on the 27 May 2016, with the shares going ex-dividend on 28 April. Against the current share price of 232p, that is a total yield from the two dividends of 6%.

My colleagues at DividendMax are forecasting increases in the ordinary dividend of 25% for 2016 and 20% for 2017 — so the dividend growth potential for ITV could be impressive from here, too.

The post Dividend of the Day: Why I’m Watching ITV plc For Income appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Mark Riding has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Looking forward to the end of June, we are expecting results Photo-Me International (LSE: PHTM) which is a highly cash generative company with net cash on the balance sheet of around £70m.

On 26 February the company issued a trading update that said:

 “The much better than expected performance in Japan coupled with the year-to-date performance in the rest of the business – where laundry continues to produce strong results -leads the Board to conclude that reported pre-tax profits for the year ending 30th April 2016 will be in excess of £40 million.  If the Japanese business continues its strong performance in the final quarter, the eventual outturn for the year is likely to be in excess of this updated projection.”

So profits are likely to be in excess of current market expectations, but what really interests us is that the company recently said that it would pay excess cash over £50m in the form of a special dividend in each of the next three years.

There is already an outstanding interim dividend payment that has been declared of 2.58p per share being paid on 12 May and going ex-dividend on 7 April.

Whilst the “photo booth” business is mature, the coin-operated laundry business is very exciting and could be a strong engine for growth in the coming years.  That said, government initiatives in Japan and France lead us to believe that the photo business could also have good prospects.

Back to the special dividend…

Assuming that cash at the year end is £70m the special dividend pot could amount to as much as £20m. That means shareholders can expect a special dividend of approximately 5p per share.

In addition, the board declared in its latest set of final results that it will increase its dividend by 10% in each of the next three years. This would result in total payouts of 5.37p for the current year, followed by 5.91p and 6.5p for the successive years.

With the shares currently at 178p, according to research from DividendMax, the implied dividend yield is approximately 6% from the special and the ordinary dividends — very attractive indeed.

The post Dividend Of The Day: A 6% Yield From An Up-And-Coming Dividend Champion appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Mark Riding owns shares in Photo-Me International. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

On a big day for companies reporting, we saw Admiral Group (LSE: ADM) return to its old ways and produce a 16% dividend increase. The car-insurance specialist saw its shares gain 7.3% today on the news, and with the stock yielding more than 5%, it may be worth a closer look.

But the stand-out performer was Arrow Global (LSE: ARW) who came in with a 39.4% dividend increase in its latest results — and that merits a closer look, too.

Arrow is a European purchaser and manager of debt portfolios. Following today’s announcement it now yields 3% and will pay its final dividend of 5.4p on 7 July (going ex-dividend on the 8 June).

The dividend is comfortably three times covered by earnings.

Tom Drury, chief executive officer of Arrow Global said:

“2015 was another record year for Arrow Global and another year of delivery on our targets. Adjusted EBITDA was up 51.5% to £153.1 million, net underlying income was up 19.6% to £35.4 million and we delivered a strong ROE of 26.5%.

“Reflecting this performance, and our confidence in the future, we are proposing a 39.4% increase in the full-year dividend to 7.1p, representing a 35% pay-out ratio.”

My colleagues at DividendMax are forecasting further double-digit dividend increases in the next two years, as Arrow takes advantage of growth in the European debt market.

Market forecasters continue to assert that the growth seen in the European NPL (non performing loans) market in recent years shows little sign of abating, and this is supported by independent research from PwC, which suggests that European NPL loan sales may well be up from €46bn in 2012 to €160bn in 2015.

It’s not a glamour stock, but it seems there is good business to be had in the European NPL market, and these results hint that Arrow can deliver.

Earnings forecasts of  26p and 31p for the next two years shows expected growth of 30% and 20% respectively and the PE at todays price of 231p is an undemanding 8.8 times next year’s prospective earnings.

The post Dividends Of The Day: 16% Jump At Admiral Group plc, 39% Hike At Arrow Global Group PLC appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Mark Riding has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.