■Shareholder return policy
Weapons Shipping (9362) is implementing dividends as a shareholder return measure. As a basic dividend policy, it is stated that stable and proactive dividends will be paid taking into account business results and future business development. Specifically, based on stable dividends, when EPS (net income per share) exceeds 100 yen, the idea is to proceed with dividend policies based on a dividend ratio of 30% or more or a dividend of 50 yen per share, whichever is higher.
Conventionally, the annual dividend per share continued to be 50 yen as a stable dividend, but the dividend trend followed, starting with a drastic increase to 92 yen (dividend payout ratio 30.1%) for the fiscal year ending 2022/3, and the dividend per share for the 2024/3 fiscal year was 130 yen (same 30.2%), which is 15 yen plus compared to the previous fiscal year, and hit a record high following the 2023/3 fiscal year. Comparing the dividend forecast at the beginning of the fiscal year (2023/5), there was a significant increase of plus 30 yen. For the fiscal year ending 2025/3, dividends of 107 yen per share (same 30.3%) are expected.
(Written by FISCO Visiting Analyst Yoichiro Shimizu)