Oriental Enterprise Holdings Limited (HKG:18) will pay a dividend of HK$0.01 on the 10th of September. Based on this payment, the dividend yield will be 5.4%, which is lower than the average for the industry.

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Oriental Enterprise Holdings' Future Dividend Projections Appear Well Covered By Earnings

While yield is important, another factor to consider about a company's dividend is whether the current payout levels are feasible. The last payment made up 91% of earnings, but cash flows were much higher. In general, cash flows are more important than earnings, so we are comfortable that the dividend will be sustainable going forward, especially with so much cash left over for reinvestment.

EPS is set to fall by 3.9% over the next 12 months if recent trends continue. However, if the dividend continues along recent trends, we estimate the payout ratio could reach 92%, meaning that most of the company's earnings is being paid out to shareholders.

Check out our latest analysis for Oriental Enterprise Holdings

Dividend Volatility

Although the company has a long dividend history, it has been cut at least once in the last 10 years. Since 2015, the annual payment back then was HK$0.05, compared to the most recent full-year payment of HK$0.02. The dividend has shrunk at around 8.8% a year during that period. Generally, we don't like to see a dividend that has been declining over time as this can degrade shareholders' returns and indicate that the company may be running into problems.

Oriental Enterprise Holdings May Find It Hard To Grow The Dividend

Given that the track record hasn't been stellar, we really want to see earnings per share growing over time. Over the past five years, it looks as though Oriental Enterprise Holdings' EPS has declined at around 3.9% a year. A modest decline in earnings isn't great, and it makes it quite unlikely that the dividend will grow in the future unless that trend can be reversed.

Our Thoughts On Oriental Enterprise Holdings' Dividend

Overall, it's not great to see that the dividend has been cut, but this might be explained by the payments being a bit high previously. The company is generating plenty of cash, which could maintain the dividend for a while, but the track record hasn't been great. Overall, we don't think this company has the makings of a good income stock.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. Taking the debate a bit further, we've identified 1 warning sign for Oriental Enterprise Holdings that investors need to be conscious of moving forward. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.

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