Key points
- Investors will probably want to know about the great ASX dividend shares revealed below
- Sonic Healthcare has a progressive dividend policy and is steadily expanding its operations with acquisitions
- Inghams has a policy of a high dividend payout ratio and it's expecting poultry sales to grow in the long-term
ASX dividend share investors will want to know about the two businesses that are about to be revealed.
They are businesses that have been paying dividends for a while and aim to reward shareholders.
These are companies that have long-term growth plans and could also pay solid dividends:
Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX: SHL)
Sonic Healthcare is one of the world's leading pathology businesses. It also offers imaging services.
It operates in a number of countries including Australia, the UK, Germany, the USA and New Zealand.
Sonic Healthcare has increased its dividend every year in a row for about a decade. It has a progressive dividend policy, meaning the ASX healthcare share looks to grow the dividend every year if possible. It grew the FY21 dividend by 7.1% after a 149% increase in net profit to $1.32 billion.
That strong FY21 result demonstrated operating leverage in both laboratory and imaging divisions, with significant profit margin expansion.
A significant part of the ASX dividend share's profit growth has been due to COVID testing. In August 2021 it reported that it had conducted around 30 million COVID PCR tests from the start of the pandemic. It's also the largest non-government COVID vaccination provider.
In the first four months of FY22 to October 2021, it had grown revenue by 5% to $3.09 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) had risen by 16% to $991 million. That was before the huge surge of Omicron cases.
Sonic Healthcare is rated as a buy by Morgan Stanley and expected to pay a dividend yield of 3.5% in FY22.
Inghams Group Ltd (ASX: ING)
Inghams is one of the largest poultry businesses in Australia.
It's currently rated as a buy by the broker Citi with expectations of a grossed-up dividend yield of 8%.
The broker is expecting Inghams sales will have been significantly impacted because of the labour shortage due to the widespread outbreak of the Omicron variant.
Sales are/were being impacted by the fact that the lower levels of staff were hurting production volumes and operational efficiency.
Another issue for the ASX dividend share is that feed costs continue to remain elevated.
However, the Federal Government and State Government have made changes to isolation rules for close contacts in the food sector which should assist in alleviating some of the staff shortages. As operating conditions begin to stabilise, the company is expecting production capacity to recover quickly to meet customer and consumer demand.
Investors may want to know that in FY21, the business increased its total dividend by 17.9% to 16.5 cents per share.
Inghams has a policy of paying out "reliable dividends" to shareholders, with a dividend payout ratio of between 60% to 80% of underlying net profit after tax. It also wants to keep investing in growth opportunities and major projects.
