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02 Mar 2023
Dividend question answered, but drift risk from here

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Dividend question answered, but drift risk from here
Fortum Oyj (FORTUM:HEL) | 0 0 0.0%
- Published:
02 Mar 2023 -
Author:
Avory Hannah HA | Wyburd Harry HW -
Pages:
14 -
Strategy update was positive on near term taxes, earnings and debt, and co has a more sustainable divi policy now and an emphasis on capital discipline. On the flip side, optically high divi yield and decade-low multiples are now even more tied to power prices given the new EPS-driven dividend policy, and here we remain cautious as we don''t think ''23 power/EPS/DPS is sustainable indefinitely. With the dividend question now resolved, absolute downside is likely limited from here but we maintain the relative Underperform and our preference for Centrica in the commods-driven space.
Several important positives today in our view:
1) Dividend policy now better matches economic profile of the group, 2) big reduction in estimate for Finnish windfall tax, 3) better than expected debt and provisions, 4) welcome emphasis on capital discipline, incl. high IRR-WACC spread hurdle rate and focus on valuation discipline on acquisitions.
Near-term numbers likely to move up, but it''s complicated
We expect near-term consensus upgrades: we raise our ''23 EPS by 13% on lower Finnish windfall tax and raise our PT slightly to EUR15.5 with better taxes, debt and provisions offset by higher capex. We also raise our ''23 DPS substantially: to EUR1.39 from EUR0.81, reflecting the new payout policy on commodity-swelled earnings. However, our 2025 EPS estimate is unchanged (no material delta in 2025 taxes) and we cut our 2025 DPS by 11% to reflect the new 75% ex-Russia payout policy. This all leads to a 9.7% 2023 divi. yield, but falling to 5.4% in 2025, the latter in line with l-t average.
Will new investors be buying in the next few months?
With the strategy update catalyst now behind us and the stock already well-owned by specialists, future outperformance now depends on attracting incremental buyers: high-single-dig DY and decade-low multiples help, but these are contingent on power prices staying indefinitely high. And we wonder whether long-only investors are willing to buy...