Ishii Hyoki backs a stronger quarter with a 30% dividend floor
Ishii Hyoki's first-quarter sales rose 12.3% to ¥4.049 billion and operating profit nearly doubled to ¥367 million, helped by AI-related package-substrate demand in manufacturing equipment. Separately, the company rewrote its dividend policy to target a consolidated payout ratio of 30% or more from dividends for the year ending January 2027, replacing a looser framework with no numeric floor. Management kept full-year guidance unchanged. The useful read-through is that better operations are now being matched by a clearer shareholder-return rule, though not yet by higher profit guidance.