Some investors rely on dividends for growing their wealth, and if you're one of those dividend sleuths, you might be intrigued to know that Retail Properties of America, Inc. (NYSE:RPAI) is about to go ex-dividend in just 4 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 25th of September will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 10th of October.
Retail Properties of America's next dividend payment will be US$0.2 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$0.7 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Retail Properties of America has a trailing yield of 5.5% on the current share price of $11.98. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. So we need to investigate whether Retail Properties of America can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.
See our latest analysis for Retail Properties of America
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. Retail Properties of America is paying out an acceptable 64% of its profit, a common payout level among most companies. While Retail Properties of America seems to be paying out a very high percentage of its income, REITs have different dividend payment behaviour and so, while we don't think this is great, we also don't think it is unusual. 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. It paid out 106% of its free cash flow in the form of dividends last year, which is outside the comfort zone 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 Retail Properties of America'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 Retail Properties of America'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?
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 fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. That's why it's comforting to see Retail Properties of America's earnings have been skyrocketing, up 21% per annum for the past five years. Earnings have been growing quickly, but we're concerned dividend payments consumed most of the company's cash flow over the past year.