Bapcor Ltd (ASX: BAP) was one of the ASX companies that reported its FY2021 earnings numbers to the markets yesterday.
The Bapcor share price didn't exactly react the way investors might have hoped, with the auto parts company's shares falling 4.56% by yesterday's close. Today, the selling has continued, with Bapcor shares down another 1.36% at the time of writing to $7.595 a share.
There were many interesting tidbits in yesterday's earnings, which my Fool colleague James covered yesterday. In summary, Bapcor delivered a revenue increase of 20.4% to $1.76 billion, a 28.8% bump in pro forma earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), and a 46.5% rise in pro forma net profit after tax to $130.1 million.
The company also increased its final dividend to 11 cents per share, fully franked. That means Bapcor will pay a total dividend of 20 cents per share for the full year, which is up 14.3% year on year.
Bapcor's dividend puts company on a good path
This latest dividend continues the path Bapcor has been on for a few years now. This company has now managed to raise its annual dividend every single year since 2015. Back then, Bapcor paid out an interim dividend of 4 cents per share in April, as well as a final dividend of 4.7 cents per share in September.
In contrast, 2021 has seen Bapcor pay an interim dividend of 9 cents per share in March already. And we now know that investors will receive their second 2021 dividend of 11 cents per share on 14 September.
That dividend growth rate represents a compounded annual growth rate of 14.88% since 2015 for Bapcor.
And since the company told us yesterday that it earned 38.3 cents in pro forma earnings per share (EPS) for FY21, we can place this dividend at an earnings payout ratio of 52.2%.
Since Bapcor managed to grow its EPS by 26.8%, but its full-year dividends by 'only' 14.3%, this means that Bapcor has managed to raise its dividend and lower its payout ratio at the same time. That's often good news for future dividend payments.
About the company's share price
Bapcor shares are, on today's pricing, up a solid 10.36% over the past 12 months. However, year to date, the story is a little different. Bapcor remains down 2.62% in 2021 so far, vastly underperforming the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which is up 11.3% over the same period.
Over the past 5 years, Bapcor shares have appreciated by 19.54%, against the ASX 200's 34.6%.
At the current Bapcor share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $2.59 billion, and a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.55. Bapcor's trailing dividend yield presently stands at 2.43%.
