Payment services provider Paypoint (LSE: PAY) has a splendid record of supercharging the dividend year after year, the stock having raised payouts at a compound annual growth rate of 9.9% during the past five years.
Reliable earnings growth has enabled Paypoint to keep hiking the dividend, and the City doesn’t expect this trend to cease in the near term at least.
Indeed, Paypoint is expected to hike the dividend to 60.3p per share in the period to March 2017, underpinned by an anticipated 8% bottom-line bump. This is up from the 42.4p payout of last year and yields a brilliant 6%.
And I believe Paypoint is in great shape to keep raising the dividend long into the future, as massive investment in its retail services transactions division grows. Revenues here shot 11.7% higher during April-June, Paypoint advised last month.
Manager in the mire?
Financial giant Standard Life’s (LSE: SL) rich vein of form has continued in recent weeks as investors have packed away their Brexit fears.
The share has added 24% in value during the past four weeks alone, with Standard Life visiting levels not seen since April in the process. But I believe this heady ascent belies the company’s now-elevated risk profile.
Standard Life was one of the asset managers to can redemptions at its UK property arm in the days following the referendum. And although the firm saw assets under administration rise 7% between January and June, to £328bn, I reckon the broad range of macroeconomic and geopolitical issues running amok could punch a fresh hole in investor appetite.
As such, I would give Standard Life a wide berth at the present time, in spite of a predicted 19.7p per share dividend for 2016 — up from 18.36p in 2015 — yielding a market-beating 5.6%.
Build bumper returns
I’m much more optimistic over the dividend outlook of construction play Persimmon (LSE: PSN).
It can’t be denied that Brexit has raised the stakes for the country’s army of housebuilders. In the near-term, a likely dip into recession could deliver a hammer blow to homebuyer appetite should wage growth stall and unemployment rise. And the prospect of lower immigration in the coming years could also dent rising demand for accommodation.
But I believe Persimmon and its peers remain red-hot dividend prospects. Britain’s housebuilding crisis has been entrenched for decades, and construction activity is still failing to match homebuyer demand. And I’m convinced this trend will continue in the coming years.
And in the meantime I believe Persimmon has what it takes to navigate possible near-term bumps and keep the dividend growing, helped in no small part by its colossal cash pile. And my view is shared by the City, with a dividend of 110p per share last year expected to rise to 112.5p in 2016, yielding a brilliant 6.4%.
