Yahoo Finance Don't Race Out To Buy ARB Corporation Limited (ASX:ARB) Just Because It's Going Ex-Dividend
ARB Corporation Limited (ASX:ARB) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in 4 days time. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 3rd of October will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 18th of October.
ARB's next dividend payment will be AU$0.2 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed AU$0.4 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that ARB has a trailing yield of 2.1% on the current share price of A$19.23. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether ARB's dividend is reliable and sustainable. We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
View our latest analysis for ARB
Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. ARB is paying out an acceptable 55% of its profit, a common payout level among most companies. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether ARB generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. The company paid out 106% of its free cash flow over the last year, which we think is outside the ideal range for most businesses. Cash flows are usually much more volatile than earnings, so this could be a temporary effect - but we'd generally want look more closely here.
While ARB's dividends were covered by the company's reported profits, cash is somewhat more important, so it's not great to see that the company didn't generate enough cash to pay its dividend. Were this to happen repeatedly, this would be a risk to ARB's ability to maintain its dividend.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at ARB, with earnings per share up 4.1% on average over the last five years. Earnings have been growing somewhat, but we're concerned dividend payments consumed most of the company's cash flow over the past year.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the last ten years, ARB has lifted its dividend by approximately 9.8% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.
Final Takeaway
Should investors buy ARB for the upcoming dividend? ARB is paying out a reasonable percentage of its income and an uncomfortably high 106% of its cash flow as dividends. At least earnings per share have been growing steadily. It's not the most attractive proposition from a dividend perspective, and we'd probably give this one a miss for now.
Ever wonder what the future holds for ARB? See what the seven analysts we track 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.
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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.
