Regular readers will know that we love our dividends at Simply Wall St, which is why it's exciting to see DCC plc (LON:DCC) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 3 days. This means that investors who purchase shares on or after the 19th of November will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 9th of December.

DCC's upcoming dividend is UK£0.52 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of UK£1.45 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, DCC has a trailing yield of approximately 2.5% on its current stock price of £59. 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 check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.

View our latest analysis for DCC

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. DCC paid out more than half (51%) of its earnings last year, which is a regular payout ratio for most companies. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Thankfully its dividend payments took up just 32% of the free cash flow it generated, which is a comfortable payout ratio.

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?

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 earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. For this reason, we're glad to see DCC's earnings per share have risen 14% per annum over the last five years. DCC is paying out a bit over half its earnings, which suggests the company is striking a balance between reinvesting in growth, and paying dividends. Given the quick rate of earnings per share growth and current level of payout, there may be a chance of further dividend increases in the future.

Another key way to measure a company's dividend prospects is by measuring its historical rate of dividend growth. In the past 10 years, DCC has increased its dividend at approximately 9.7% a year on average. We're glad to see dividends rising alongside earnings over a number of years, which may be a sign the company intends to share the growth with shareholders.