Picture supply: Getty Pictures
Regardless of a 4.65% dividend yield, Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) isn’t the primary title that involves thoughts after I consider FTSE 100 dividend shares. Different shares appear extra apparent.
These embrace the likes of Unilever (LSE:ULVR), the place earnings are extra steady. However over the long run, do traders get extra money in the event that they’re ready to place up with unevenness?
Lloyds Banking Group
Like most banks, Lloyds is a comparatively cyclical enterprise. Its earnings can shift considerably from one 12 months to a different and that can lead to uneven dividends from one 12 months to a different.
Lloyds dividends per share 2014-23
Created at TradingView
Buyers who personal the inventory ought to anticipate to get extra again in some years than others. There’s nothing unsuitable with that, however what issues is how the corporate performs over time.
The Lloyds share worth was round 74p in October 2014. So £10,000 would have purchased me 13,513 shares. And since then, the corporate has returned slightly below 23p per share in dividends.
Meaning I’d have acquired £3,070 in passive earnings, with extra of it coming in some years than others. I feel that’s good, however the query is the way it compares with different alternate options.
Unilever
A decade in the past, the Unilever share worth was slightly below £25. Meaning I might have purchased 401 shares with £10,000 and if I’d accomplished this, I’d have acquired £5,260 in dividends.
[Unilever chart]
That makes it look as if the steadier performer gives higher returns over the long run. And whereas that has undoubtedly been the case during the last 10 years, that’s not fairly the total story.
With Lloyds, the share worth is as cyclical because the underlying enterprise. And which means shopping for the inventory when issues are going nicely may be very completely different to purchasing it in a downturn.
Lloyds price-to-book ratio 2014-24
Created at TradingView
10 years in the past, Lloyds shares had been buying and selling at a comparatively excessive price-to-book (P/B) a number of. Wanting on the returns since 2020 – when the inventory was at its least expensive – tells a special story.
The story since 2020
When Lloyds inventory was buying and selling beneath 30p, a £10,000 funding would have purchased me 34,482 shares. And if I’d invested then, I’d have acquired £3,030 in dividends by now.
At across the identical time, Unilever inventory was buying and selling at simply over £38 per share. So with £10,000, I might have purchased 259 shares, which might have generated £1,719 in passive earnings.
In brief, whether or not Lloyds has generated extra dividend earnings depends upon when somebody purchased it. On the proper worth, the extra unstable financial institution inventory has been a greater supply of money.
Meaning earnings traders shouldn’t be too fast to dismiss the inventory as a result of its report is patchy. There have been occasions when volatility has generated unusually good alternatives.
The place are we now?
This raises the query of the place we at the moment are. In the meanwhile, Lloyds shares are beginning to edge in the direction of what has been their common P/B a number of during the last decade.
That makes me assume there are higher alternatives elsewhere proper now. However with rates of interest beginning to fall once more, I’ll be looking out to see if that adjustments within the close to future.
