Yahoo Finance CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) Goes Ex-Dividend In 4 Days
Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You will need to purchase shares before the 14th of August to receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 30th of August.
CF Industries Holdings's upcoming dividend is US$0.30 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$1.20 per share to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that CF Industries Holdings has a trailing yield of 2.3% on the current share price of $52.15. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
View our latest analysis for CF Industries Holdings
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. CF Industries Holdings is paying out an acceptable 60% of its profit, a common payout level among most companies. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. What's good is that dividends were well covered by free cash flow, with the company paying out 24% of its cash flow last year.
It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with shrinking earnings are tricky from a dividend perspective. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. CF Industries Holdings's earnings per share have fallen at approximately 17% a year over the previous 5 years. When earnings per share fall, the maximum amount of dividends that can be paid also falls.
Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. In the last 10 years, CF Industries Holdings has lifted its dividend by approximately 31% a year on average. That's interesting, but the combination of a growing dividend despite declining earnings can typically only be achieved by paying out more of the company's profits. This can be valuable for shareholders, but it can't go on forever.
Final Takeaway
Is CF Industries Holdings an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? We're not enthused by the declining earnings per share, although at least the company's payout ratio is within a reasonable range, meaning it may not be at imminent risk of a dividend cut. While it does have some good things going for it, we're a bit ambivalent and it would take more to convince us of CF Industries Holdings's dividend merits.
Curious what other investors think of CF Industries Holdings? See what analysts are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow .
A common investment mistake is buying the first interesting stock you see. Here you can find a list of promising dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
