Bekaert: A Surprise Dividend Hike

2025-03-16 11:40:00 ET

Summary

• Bekaert's 2024 results were robust, with a reported net profit of 238.9M EUR and a free cash flow yield in the mid-teens range.
• The company announced a 6% dividend increase and is executing a 200M EUR share repurchase program, reducing the share count to below 50M.
• Despite no expected growth in 2025, Bekaert's strong free cash flow and low net debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.5 make it a solid investment.
• Trading at an EV/EBITDA ratio of around 5, Bekaert's market cap is 1.9B EUR, making it an attractive opportunity to expand my position.

Introduction

Back in July 2024, I mentioned Bekaert ( OTCPK:BEKSF ) ( OTCPK:BEKAY ) offered an appealing 13% free cash flow yield, although last year was a transition year . Now that world trade has been complicated, I don’t expect any improvement in 2025. But considering Bekaert was able to post robust results in 2024, I’m fine with a zero-growth year as the Belgian company has proven it's able to generate a strong free cash flow, even during more challenging times. ...

Read the full article on Seeking Alpha

For further details see: