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Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see Super Retail Group Limited (ASX:SUL) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. If you purchase the stock on or after the 23rd of August, you won't be eligible to receive this dividend, when it is paid on the 26th of September.
Super Retail Group's next dividend payment will be AU$0.28 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of AU$0.50 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that Super Retail Group has a trailing yield of 5.1% on the current share price of A$9.75. Dividends are an important source of income to many shareholders, but the health of the business is crucial to maintaining those dividends. That's why we should always check whether the dividend payments appear sustainable, and if the company is growing.
Check out our latest analysis for Super Retail Group
Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned in profit, then the dividend could be unsustainable. Super Retail Group paid out 71% of its earnings to investors last year, a normal payout level for most businesses. Yet cash flows are even more important than profits for assessing a dividend, so we need to see if the company generated enough cash to pay its distribution. It paid out more than half (63%) of its free cash flow in the past year, which is within an average range for most companies.
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 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. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at Super Retail Group, with earnings per share up 4.4% on average over the last five years. Earnings per share growth has been slim, and the company is already paying out a majority of its earnings. While there is some room to both increase the payout ratio and reinvest in the business, generally the higher a payout ratio goes, the lower a company's prospects for future growth.