Shoe Zone (SHOE) is making good on its pledge to return 60 per cent of post-tax earnings to shareholders, as well as any surplus cash above £11m. By ending the last financial year with £15.7m on the balance sheet, investors in the footwear retailer will receive an 8p special dividend in late March. On top of a 13 per cent rise in the ordinary payout, this left total dividends up by 91.2 per cent to 19.5p a share.
Shoe Zone operates from 492 stores, having opened 16 and closed 20 during the past year. Of those openings, around 10 were what the company calls its “Big Box” format – cleaner, more modern stores located out-of-town or in retail parks. Reorganising the property portfolio appears to be working: rent renewals fell by almost a quarter on average last year, amounting to a saving of £431,000, while the average lease length now only stretches to just beyond two years.
Analysts at broker finnCap upgraded their numbers and now expect “conservatively framed” pre-tax profits of £11m for the year ending September 2019, giving EPS of 17.6p, compared with £11.3m and 19p in FY2018.
SHOE ZONE (SHOE) | ||||
ORD PRICE: | 198p | MARKET VALUE: | £99m | |
TOUCH: | 195-200p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 203p | LOW: 146p |
DIVIDEND YIELD: | 5.8%* | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
NET ASSET VALUE: | 77p | NET CASH: | £15.7m |
Year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
2014 | 173 | 10.5 | 16.1 | 3.6 |
2015 | 167 | 10.1 | 16.2 | 9.7 |
2016 | 160 | 10.3 | 16.9 | 10.1 |
2017 | 158 | 9.5 | 15.8 | 10.2 |
2018 | 161 | 11.3 | 19.0 | 11.5 |
% change | +2 | +18 | +21 | +13 |
Ex-div: | 28 Feb | |||
Payment: | 20 Mar | |||
*Excludes special dividend worth 8p a share |