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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 CSE Global Limited (SGX:544) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 22nd of August will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 13th of September.
CSE Global's next dividend payment will be S$0.013 per share, on the back of last year when the company paid a total of S$0.028 to shareholders. Last year's total dividend payments show that CSE Global has a trailing yield of 6.1% on the current share price of SGD0.45. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.
Check out our latest analysis for CSE Global
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. CSE Global is paying out an acceptable 69% of its profit, a common payout level among most companies. 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. Over the last year it paid out 62% of its free cash flow as dividends, within the usual range for most companies.
It's positive to see that CSE Global'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?
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 CSE Global has grown its earnings rapidly, up 43% a year for the past five years. The current payout ratio suggests a good balance between rewarding shareholders with dividends, and reinvesting in growth. With a reasonable payout ratio, profits being reinvested, and some earnings growth, CSE Global could have strong prospects for future increases to the dividend.
Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. CSE Global has delivered 3.2% dividend growth per year on average over the past 10 years. It's good to see both earnings and the dividend have improved - although the former has been rising much quicker than the latter, possibly due to the company reinvesting more of its profits in growth.