Michelle Lopez :
It’s a hold, and it’s a hold because at this point they are pivoting the business somewhat. They’ve got that really neat domestic lottery business, but they’ve also got the SaaS over in North America and the UK, and just need to see more operating leverage come through from this business. And from a yield perspective, again, they’ve actually cut their payout ratio.
So when they did the last acquisition recently, the payout ratio got reduced. It’s now a range of 65 per cent to 85 per cent. And that actually meant that the distribution went backwards. So, from a yield perspective, I think there are better options elsewhere.Okay, good segue. What is that better option? Give us one stock that did a great dividend that we mightn’t have seen.The one that always gets missed I find is Spark.
But when you think about operationally, they delivered an exceptionally strong result. Their mobile division in particular doing really well. They’re paying a 5.5 per cent dividend yield. Telstra’s on four. They’ve got an under-levered balance sheet, which means they can carry on investing and pay out a dividend.
And then they’re looking to monetise their infrastructure assets like Telstra did last year. So we could be coming into a nice pot of cash and further capital management.I think that’s one that’s got a very consistent dividend. It’s got growth within the dividend, given the cash flow that it’s spinning off, the free cash flow, and you could get some capital management in the coming 12, 18 months.Oh, well, I’ve taken a bit of a different tack on this one.