Monday, June 29, 2015

A Matter of Dividends



A Matter
of Dividends

I came across a recent posting : The best run companies do not pay a single dividend. Even if I did not bother to open and read about it, I would have assumed the issue is about good companies that keep on making profits and ploughing it back for more growth in whatever areas and in return, create more profits and the process keep going on.

Investors of these so-called best run companies would just have to bite their teeth investing in these companies faithfully for many years hoping that their patience would be rewarded with a consistent appreciation of its share price.

A company that comes into mind is Warren Buffet's company, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. I believed this company is one of those rare breeds that DID not pay a single dividend at all yet its share price keeps on going up and up along the years.

Berkshire Hathaway holds sizeable stakes in several good fundamental companies that ironically pays out good dividends to its shareholders! So with all the dividends flowing back to Berkshire Hathaway, the management must have used some of it to buy into more shares in more viable good companies trading at reasonable prices or at depressed price especially during crisis times.

How many companies can you think off if one is to look at our companies on Bursa Malaysia? I could not think of one.

Nevertheless, there are many types of investors with some looking for reasonable good dividends and some who could not be bothered if the company doesn't pay at all or only a pittance amount.

But dividends matter UTMOST to me when it comes to buying shares of a particular company. The dividends come in pretty handy over the years and one must be rather sharp in identifying such companies.

The consistent flow of dividends if collected over a period of times could be a huge amount, sometimes even surpassing your original capital cost of investment.

Three such companies that I have been most lucky enough to invest over more than ten years ago are Fima Corporation Berhad (Fimacor), Keck Seng (M) Berhad and Harrisons Holdings (M) Berhad.

The dividends received over the ten years easily exceeded my original capital cost and yet the companies's share price also appreciated massively and also the companies continue to dish out reasonable good dividends.

I called them my "money-good sons" of Bursa Malaysia.

It is like you bought a house, then after ten years of collecting the rental which exceeded you capital cost, you continue to receive rental again for the years to come and at the same time, the house is under your ownership 100%!

Of course, I also holds stakes in other good companies (that has yet to be discussed in my blogs) that has been paying good dividends for several years.

Pioneer investors of Public Bank and its siblings London Pacific Insurance would never agree that these two companies making great profits year after year should keep the money and do not share it with them.

Imagine you invested for decades and do not receive a single sen! I wonder how many senior veterans would still be keeping the shares then.

And then during those period of world crisis, the shares prices experienced sharp downtrend and the investor must be really sweating and cursing it like hell at those moment wondering it would still be wise enough to cling on to the share or sell it while there is still a good price for it.

Another risk is that when a company (that does not pay any dividend at all) that makes profit year after year and seeing its cash hoard increasing, decides on an merger or acquisitions exercise and when it does not work out, resulting in heavy losses. The company continues to plough its reserve cash into the new loss making companies hoping that it will turn around. And then not only did it not turn around, it continues to suffer losses which eventually takes its toll.

Such scenarios are real. You would have heard that many people advise that   money in one's own hand is better than money is someone's else.

That is why I have always like to invest in companies that share out its profit with investors as long as they make profit on that particular year!


Always expect the unexpected

There are sometimes many surprises when it comes to dividends announcement from companies on Bursa Malaysia.

One of my favourites, Mercury Industries Berhad which has been announcing dividends payments in May for the last three consecutive years "shocked yours truly" with a no dividend payment this May.

I had placed great hopes that Mercury would at least announce an 8 sen dividend after a strong 1st Qtr 2015 set of earning results of 4.57 sen. Annualised this and we are looking into an earning per sen of around 18 sen for 2015!

Maybe Mercury is trying to conserve its cash since it would be going into construction business soon as part of diversification plan.

While I was disappointed with Mercury, I had expected another of my favourites, Harrisons not to declare any dividends for year 2014 since it was using its earnings (2014) to pay for its settlement with Kastam DiRaja Malaysia .

Instead, Harrisons "pleasantly surprised" yours truly with a dividend of 15 sen payable on Aug 18. This will be the 11 years of consecutive dividends  payment to shareholders since my first purchase in 2004.

And going by its commendable 1st Qtr 2015 results of earning of 7.82 sen, another 15 sen dividend looks also very likely when 2016 comes.

See, dividends matter a lot.







Friday, June 19, 2015

What is wrong with Focus Lumber?



What is wrong
with Focus Lumber?

Of late, the share price of Focus Lumber Berhad had been on a downtrend since touching a high of RM1.64 on Apr 21 to as low as RM1.26 on May 25 much to the chagrin of yours truly.

Currently, the price has recovered from that low on May 25 to RM1.36 on June 19.

So what really happened
to Focus Lumber?

One of the main reasons is because of vessel delay due  to congestion at ports in the USA. Because of this, the quantity sold to USA was lower than the preceding quarter, hence lower revenue and slightly lower earning per share.

Focus Lumber reported an eps of 3.22 sen for its 1st Qtr 2015, which is 18% lower compared to its preceding quarter of 3.96 sen. Assuming the earning remain flat or same for the next three quarters, the annual eps would be 12.86 sen.

Now, one must note that its cash hoards has increased tremendously from RM59 Million (end of Dec 2014) to RM72 Million (end of March 2015). The reason is because its receivables of RM15 (end of Dec 2014) has been reduced to only RM6 Million (end of March 2015).

Isn't this good news for the company and shareholders that the company is able to collect back its receivables - hence resulting in its increased cash hoards?

Although I must admit that I am a simple layman and do not understand the calculations of accounts of a company compared to a qualified accountant, I understand that the RM72 Millions if divided by the number of company's shares means a Focus Lumber share is backed by a cash of 70 sen. (Not many companies in Bursa Malaysia can boast of such high cash per share).

Dividends for the last four years were 6 sen, 6 sen, 8 sen and 8 sen for Financial Year 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. Whether there will be a 8 sen dividend for Financial Year 2015 remains to be seen, but based on the last four years' history trend of dividend payment, I believe management will announce a 8 sen dividend in December 2015.

So is the current price of RM1.36 fair, undervalued or still expensive? If you ask several investors, you would get all kinds of different opinions and you would be very confused. Because there are many ways to see it the same thing or issue from many different angels.

But my way is very simple. If one is to strip off its cash per share of 70 sen, investor would only be paying 66s sen for a stock that earns an annualised eps of 12.86 sen. The Price Earning Ratio would just be less than five only!  Besides, the potential dividend of 8 sen would also mean the dividend yield is above 6%!

Again, not many companies can boast these. In conclusion, I personally believed that nothing is wrong with Focus Lumber. I also believed that the issues of delay in arrival of vessel departing to USA will also be settled and eventually result in normal business operation back.

Furthermore, the ringgit continued to experience new low against the US dollars, at one time touching a new 9-year low. As long as the ringgit continues to remain weak against the dollar, the advantage continues to be on Focus Lumber's side and this situation looks likely to continue to persist for many more months to come or even years.

As such, the current weakness share price is an opportunity for investors to pick up for those who have not own any Focus Lumber share at all as the risk is lower now compared to several month ago. 

As my programme buying to average out the share price over a particular period of time for Focus Lumber shares is still above the current price, I shall wait for another round of buying spree should Focus Lumber share price falls to around RM1.25 range, that is if it really happen.

I am still holding on to my 36,000 shares of Focus Lumber, and I strongly believe that there are many of you similar in my position, holding at above the current price or near its 52-week high.

An email from Eric Woo on May 28, 2015 :

"My sister-in-law is taking Elgucare for her spinal problems. I believe there are 3 variants with price ranging from RM128 to RM138 (inclusive of GST) which is available from AA Pharmacy, Lucky Garden - that's just behind TMC supermarket in Bangsar."

First, thank you for sharing on this. It is true that there are three types of variants for its usage to be more effective, that is the upper level, middle level and bottom level. If a person is suffering from pain in the middle of the spinal, then the person should consume the middle level types of Elgucare.

Well, my spouse has been feeling comfortable with her back and can be seen going for light jogs two or three times per week. In fact, I haven't hear of any back pain from her during the last two weeks.

I have to say thanks to Elgucare!