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 Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) is about to go ex-dividend in just three days. Typically, the ex-dividend date is one business day before the record date which is the date on which a company determines the shareholders eligible to receive a dividend. It is important to be aware of the ex-dividend date because any trade on the stock needs to have been settled on or before the record date. This means that investors who purchase Intercontinental Exchange's shares on or after the 15th of September will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 30th of September.

The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.38 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of US$1.52 to shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, Intercontinental Exchange stock has a trailing yield of around 1.5% on the current share price of $103.4. 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 Intercontinental Exchange can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow.

View our latest analysis for Intercontinental Exchange

Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. Intercontinental Exchange has a low and conservative payout ratio of just 24% of its income after tax.

When a company paid out less in dividends than it earned in profit, this generally suggests its dividend is affordable. The lower the % of its profit that it pays out, the greater the margin of safety for the dividend if the business enters a downturn.

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 business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. It's encouraging to see Intercontinental Exchange has grown its earnings rapidly, up 20% a year for the past five years.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. In the past nine years, Intercontinental Exchange has increased its dividend at approximately 13% a year on average. It's great to see earnings per share growing rapidly over several years, and dividends per share growing right along with it.