TZW
The first three equity firms, CRDB Bank, Swissport and Tanzania Cigarette that declared their dividend per share reported decreasing amount to affect dividend yield.
The most affected was TCC shareholders who have lost 53 per cent dividend yield in comparison to dividend declared in 2016 and 2017. TCC, largest cigarette producer, paid a dividend of 200/- last year which against yesterday share price of 16,300/- it translates to a dividend yield of 1.2 per cent a share.
The cigarette firm paid a dividend of 300/- in 2016 that produced a dividend yield of 2.6 per cent at price of 11,500/-a share.Zan Securities CEO Raphael Masumbuko said dividend yield loss of TCC impacted negatively investors’ appetite for the cigarette firm shares.
“The [dividend yield] loss is somehow high, that is why TCC share are trading slowly at the bourse,” Mr Masumbuko told the `Daily News' yesterday. Stockbrokers have it that the industry acceptable dividend yield loss should be around 10 per cent. According to Tanzania Securities year-to-date analysis TCC share have depreciated by 9.5 per cent to 16,300/- in the last four months.
CRDB last week recommended a dividend of 5/- lower than 10/- of previous year which translated to a dividend yield of 2.85 per cent at 175/- yesterday and 4.65 per cent at 215/- last February price.
The yield loss comes to almost 30 per cent. The loss, though higher than sector benchmark, failed to divert investors buying CRDB share. The share of CRDB, the largest bank,has gained by over 6.00 per cent to 175/- since January. Swissport dividend yield loss also was above sector benchmark at 26.5 per cent.
The dividend yield, of airport ground handling firm, stands at 4.6 per cent this year compared to 6.25 per cent of previous year against share prices of 3,540/- and 5,400/- respectively. Swissport share had dipped by 1.1 per cent to 3,540/- in the last four months.
Stockbrokers predicting that given the last year economic environment majority of listed firms are expected to declare low dividends this year compared to the previous. However, historically, a higher dividend yield has been considered to be desirable among many investors.