the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

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PLDT trims final dividend to ₱46 as cost and leverage pressures linger

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. PLDT’s board has approved a final cash dividend of ₱46 per share , bringing total dividends for 2025 to ₱94 per share and framing the payout as 60% of Telco Core EPS —a clear signal that management is prioritizing policy discipline over headline yield. The adjustment comes as the telco’s operating story remains broadly stable, but the earnings quality underneath shows strain. For full-year 2025, PLDT reported net service revenues of ₱196.2 billion (+1%) and EBITDA of ₱111.2 billion (+3%) with a 52% EBITDA margin , reflecting resilience in data and broadband that now account for 85% of service revenues . Yet reported net income fell 7% to ₱30.0 billion , reflecting ...

MERALCO turns a record year into a bigger check — and tests the limits of a record-high stock

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. Meralco is doing what mature, cash-generative franchises are supposed to do after a strong year: share more of the spoils . In a board decision dated February 25, 2026 , Manila Electric Co. approved a final cash dividend of ₱16.672 per share , payable on April 20, 2026 to shareholders on record as of March 26, 2026 . That final payout brings total dividends declared out of 2025 core consolidated net income (CCNI) to ₱28.00 per share —a level Meralco itself frames as roughly 62.5% of core earnings per share . In other words, the board is telling investors: 2025 was strong enough not only to fund expansion, but also to raise the income stream that has long anchored the stock’...

$FEU’s Dividend Trim: When Enrollment Growth Isn’t Enough to Protect the Payout

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. Far Eastern University, Incorporated (FEU) has nudged its cash dividend lower, to ₱14.00 per share from the prior ₱16.00 per share, as shown in its dividend history. While a ₱2 cut may look modest, dividend adjustments are rarely cosmetic. In FEU’s case, the latest interim financials suggest a clear rationale: profitability is softening as costs rise faster than revenues, cash is being pulled into capital spending, and operating cash conversion is pressured by seasonality and receivables growth . This is not a distress story. It is, however, a capital-allocation story —a board choosing to preserve flexibility in a year when the underlying earnings en...

$PX Philex Mining’s dividend doubles as 2025 “price windfall” meets a pivotal project inflection

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. Philex Mining Corp. (PX) is heading into 2026 with a rare combination of near‑term optimism and familiar operational caution —and the market’s first clear signal of that balancing act came via its latest cash payout. The company declared a ₱ 0.04-per-share cash dividend (about ₱231 million in total), double the ₱ 0.02-per-share cash dividend it declared a year earlier—an upgrade that underscores both earnings momentum and management’s confidence heading into Silangan’s long-awaited start-up window. A higher dividend, but still a “measured” payout The headline number is the doubling itself: PX’s board approved a ₱0.04/share dividend payable March 25, 2026 to sh...

The quiet winner behind $ICT’s roar: $ANS

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. There are rallies that announce themselves with fireworks, and then there are rallies that quietly rearrange the scoreboard for everyone who had the good sense—or the patience—to already be on the field. International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICT) has been the loud kind lately. At ₱680 a share (as of Feb. 20, 2026 ), it’s the sort of valuation that doesn’t just lift a stock—it reshapes the pecking order of portfolios that hold it. And as ICT climbs, the spotlight naturally falls on the usual suspects: the founders, the nominee accounts, the insiders whose names the market knows by heart. But one of the most interesting beneficiaries isn’t a port operator at...

$ICT Up-Rates, $SM Down-Rates: When the Market Puts a Premium on “Global” and a Discount on “Domestic”

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes and is not investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. The market has been running a split screen: ICTSI’s valuation has been re-rated upward , while SM’s has been marked down —despite both being best-in-class franchises. The cleanest way to describe what’s happening is multiple expansion versus multiple compression : the market is willing to pay more for ICTSI’s earnings stream, and less for SM’s—even if SM remains profitable and resilient. The bridge between price and valuation is always the same question: what did the latest quarter do to conviction? In their 3Q 2025 SEC Form 17-Qs , ICTSI delivered the kind of numbers that investors tend to reward with a higher multiple— double-digit growth, margin lift, and strong operatin...