Yahoo Finance Only Three Days Left To Cash In On PriceSmart's (NASDAQ:PSMT) Dividend
PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSMT) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 13th of August will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 31st of August.
PriceSmart's next dividend payment will be US$0.35 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$0.70 per share. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, PriceSmart has a trailing yield of approximately 1.1% on its current stock price of $66.64. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether PriceSmart's dividend is reliable and sustainable. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.
View our latest analysis for PriceSmart
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. That's why it's good to see PriceSmart paying out a modest 27% of its earnings. 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 positive to see that PriceSmart's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.
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. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. That's why it's not ideal to see PriceSmart's earnings per share have been shrinking at 3.4% a year over the previous five years.
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, PriceSmart has lifted its dividend by approximately 3.4% a year on average.
To Sum It Up
Is PriceSmart worth buying for its dividend? Earnings per share are down meaningfully, although at least the company is paying out a low and conservative percentage of both its earnings and cash flow. It's definitely not great to see earnings falling, but at least there may be some buffer before the dividend needs to be cut. In summary, while it has some positive characteristics, we're not inclined to race out and buy PriceSmart today.
In light of that, while PriceSmart has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for PriceSmart you should know about.
If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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