In this article I want to spell out why easyJet (LSE: EZJ) is a brilliant dividend share today, and why it is likely to remain so over the next decade.
Before I do, though, I’d like to draw your attention to Countryside Properties (LSE: CSP). It’s another dirt-cheap, big dividend payer that I’d be happy to buy and hang onto for the next 10 years at least, and fresh trading results last week again showed why.
The FTSE 250 firm declared on Thursday that total completions galloped 28% higher in 2018 to 1,094 properties, helped in part by the acquisition of affordable homes specialist Westleigh Homes last year.
Demand for affordable homes is heading through the roof at the moment and is likely to continue doing so, supported by low mortgage rates and the government’s Help To Buy scheme. In total some 413 of these properties completed at Countryside between October and December, up 52% year-on-year.
A great dividend grower
And the Essex business is capitalising on this fertile trading environment by raising its construction rates, a strategy that has helped its total forward order book leap 78% to a record £946m as of December.
Things are looking good, then, for the housebuilder to keep earnings rising at quite a pace, a view shared by City analysts who predict further double-digit-percentage profit rises for the fiscal years to September 2019 and 2020. Consequently Countryside also looks in great shape to keep growing dividends at a stunning pace (it raised the full-year dividend 29% last time out to 10.8p per share, for example).
The number crunchers estimate a 12.3p reward for this year and 13.8p for next year, figures that yield a fat 3.8% and 4.3%.
An easy choice
I believe there is a huge disparity between the builder and its share price right now in light of its brilliant profits picture, Countryside currently trading on a forward P/E ratio of just 7.9 times. And the same can be said for easyJet, the budget airline also dealing on a bargain-basement earnings multiple of 10.7 times for the current year.
I like the FTSE 100 flyer a lot and its first-quarter trading update also unveiled last week showed why. Total revenues in the three months to December surged 13.7% to £1.3bn, driven by a 15.1% improvement in passenger numbers which moved to 21.6m.
The steps easyJet is taking to bolster its fleet and the number of routes it operates have clearly paid off handsomely and look set to continue to do so. It has largely shrugged off the negative impact of Brexit and commented that booking levels for the first fiscal half “remain encouraging.” It added that second half bookings “continue to be ahead of last year.”
Budget travel is big business and this is why I’m confident that easyJet will continue to thrive. And so is the City, with brokers predicting that the airline will be encouraged to lift the dividend from 58.6p per share in fiscal 2018 to 59.9p this year and 64.3p next year. Yields therefore sit at an inflation-busting 4.7% and 5.1% for these respective years, figures which make the business a brilliant Footsie income share to load up on today.