Despite its loss forecast, PEGASUS hit its daily price limit and announced a medium-term plan to sharply increase its annual dividend to ¥80. The market is now assessing whether JUKI could implement a similar shareholder-return policy.
Industrial sewing machine leader PEGASUS hit its daily price limit at the close on 30 October 2026. In its earnings announcement that day, the company indicated that it would sharply increase its annual dividend from ¥30 in the previous fiscal year to ¥80, while lowering its full-year forecast to a net loss. The market focused on the company's emphasis on returning capital to shareholders, including its new medium-term management plan's policy of maintaining a dividend on equity ratio, or DOE, of at least 6% in principle.
JUKI, another global leader in industrial sewing machines, explained that it supplies products to more than 195 countries worldwide and that sewing-related operations account for nearly two-thirds of its sales. Its high level of borrowings and low equity ratio, in the low 30% range, were identified as risks because of the resulting heavy financial burden. Although the company is shifting toward a policy that prioritizes profits under its new management structure, the view was expressed that a shareholder-return policy similar to PEGASUS's is not highly likely at present.
The difference in the two companies' financial structures is therefore analyzed as imposing current constraints on the conditions and sequence under which JUKI can strengthen shareholder returns. While PEGASUS recorded a limit-up close, JUKI's share price fell that day, indicating that the market is not viewing the two companies through the same narrative. The form in which future shareholder returns become realistic will depend on the companies' business strengths and changes in the external environment.