Yahoo Finance Read This Before Considering Aurizon Holdings Limited (ASX:AZJ) For Its Upcoming 2.1% Dividend
It looks like Aurizon Holdings Limited (ASX:AZJ) is about to go ex-dividend in the next 4 days. You can purchase shares before the 26th of August in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 23rd of September.
Aurizon Holdings's upcoming dividend is AU$0.12 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of AU$0.24 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Aurizon Holdings has a trailing yield of approximately 4.0% on its current stock price of A$5.91. 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.
See our latest analysis for Aurizon Holdings
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. Last year Aurizon Holdings paid out 100% of its profits as dividends to shareholders, suggesting the dividend is not well covered by earnings. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether Aurizon Holdings generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. It paid out more than half (58%) of its free cash flow in the past year, which is within an average range for most companies.
It's good to see that while Aurizon Holdings's dividends were not covered by profits, at least they are affordable from a cash perspective. If executives were to continue paying more in dividends than the company reported in profits, we'd view this as a warning sign. Extraordinarily few companies are capable of persistently paying a dividend that is greater than their profits.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. Fortunately for readers, Aurizon Holdings's earnings per share have been growing at 15% a year for the past five years.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. Since the start of our data, 8 years ago, Aurizon Holdings has lifted its dividend by approximately 26% a year on average. It's exciting to see that both earnings and dividends per share have grown rapidly over the past few years.
The Bottom Line
From a dividend perspective, should investors buy or avoid Aurizon Holdings? Aurizon Holdings has been growing its earnings per share nicely, although judging by the difference between its profit and cashflow payout ratios, the company might have reported some write-offs over the last year. In summary, while it has some positive characteristics, we're not inclined to race out and buy Aurizon Holdings today.
Ever wonder what the future holds for Aurizon Holdings? See what the nine analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow
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.
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.
