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Magna International Inc. (TSE:MG) stock is about to trade ex-dividend in four 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. Accordingly, Magna International investors that purchase the stock on or after the 18th of May will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 2nd of June.
The company's next dividend payment will be US$0.46 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of US$1.84 per share. Last year's total dividend payments show that Magna International has a trailing yield of 3.5% on the current share price of CA$71.22. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. As a result, readers should always check whether Magna International has been able to grow its dividends, or if the dividend might be cut.
See our latest analysis for Magna International
If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Magna International paid out 120% of profit in the past year, which we think is typically not sustainable unless there are mitigating characteristics such as unusually strong cash flow or a large cash balance. 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 dividends equivalent to 210% of what it generated in free cash flow, a disturbingly high percentage. Our definition of free cash flow excludes cash generated from asset sales, so since Magna International is paying out such a high percentage of its cash flow, it might be worth seeing if it sold assets or had similar events that might have led to such a high dividend payment.
Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Magna International's payouts were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we would be concerned about the sustainability of this dividend.
Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
When earnings decline, dividend companies become much harder to analyse and own safely. 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 discomforted by Magna International's 24% per annum decline in earnings in the past five years. Such a sharp decline casts doubt on the future sustainability of the dividend.